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The Boxer Uprising 



CHEEFOO, TAKU, TIEN-TSIN 



THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 






UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 



^ 



THE BOXER 
UPRISING 

CHEEFOO, TAKU, TIEN-TSIN 

A Part of Underwood & Underwood's 
Stereoscopic Tour through China 

Personally conducted by 
JAMES RIC ALTON 



M(^ 



» . o a ** , 



UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD 

New York London 

Ottawa, Kansas Toronto, Canada 



THE LIBRARY OF 
COH0RES8, 

Two CowEtj Received 

SEP. 22 1902 

CI aVs Ct^KXa Mo. 
COPY 3. 



H 



Copyright, 1902 

By UNDERWOOD i& UNDERWOOD 

New York and London 

(Entered at Stationers' Hall) 



Stereographs copyrighted in the United States and foreign countries 



MAP SYSTEM 
Patented in the United States, August 21, 1900 
Patented in Great Britain, March 22, 1900 
Patented in France, March 26, 1900. S. G. D. G. 
Switzerland, Patent Nr. 21,211 
Patents applied for in other countries 



All rights reserved 



>^S- 



WHERE ARE WE GOING? 

The ancient empires of Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, 
Babylon and Greece, all passed away. One venerable 
contemporary of those old empires alone remains to con- 
nect the present with the hoary dawn of history ; and this 
solitary antique among the nations of to-day we are 
now to visit through the stereoscope. Exaggerated 
claims to the antiquity of Chinese history, identifies the 
first dynasty, that of Fohi, with Noah of the Bible ; but 
more reliable native historians do not attempt to place 
authentic records earlier than iioo B. C. This was dur- 
ing what is known as the Chow dynasty, covering the 
period when Homer, Hesiod, Zoroaster, David and 
Solomon lived and when the pyramids of Egypt were 
built. At this time Roman history was mythical and 
fabulous, and yet Pa-out-she, a Chinese scholar, had 
completed a dictionary containing forty thousand char- 
acters. 

The mariner's compass was known to the Chinese 
at this early period. History also records that Fong, 
a ruler of this time, built a Tartar city in five days ; that 
permanent political institutions were established as early 
as 800 B. C. 

When we remember that one of the oldest and most 
progressive among those ancient empires exists to-day 
not essentially altered in her customs, laws and institu- 
tions, what an interesting study is therein offered to us! 

We can see Egypt under the Khedive, but not under 
Rameses ; we have seen Italy under Victor Emmanuel ; 



lO CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

but we cannot see Rome under Julius Caesar, nor Greece 
in the time of Pericles. We know Palestine under the 
Sultan; but we cannot behold Judea under Solomon. 
It is now possible for us to look upon the dreary plains 
of the Euphrates ; but we can only read of the splendor 
of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar and the world-encom- 
passing Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great. 
To see life as it existed in any part of the world three 
thousand years ago is a rare privilege. Yet to see China 
is to turn back the wheels of time and gaze into the 
dawn of human history. We deHght to stroll through a 
museum of antiquities and look at isolated objects that 
carry us back to former ages. In China, a veritable 
world of antiquities, relatively associated, moral, social, 
literary, political and industrial, are offered for our in- 
spection. The word change was not in Pa-out-she's dic- 
tionary, and China under the Manchus is China under 
Chow. 

Nor is it altogether her antiquity that offers so inter- 
esting a subject for study; she is at this time a puzzle 
among the nations, and promises to be, in the future, 
a gigantic and mysterious force. During the recent 
Boxer uprising, we have witnessed this oldest of the 
world's empires, proud of her history and tenacious of 
her time-honored civilization, hurling back the encroach- 
ments of modernism. None of the nations of this age 
are so little known — so misunderstood, yet so relent- 
lessly assailed; but when she learns her own latent 
strength and how to use it, the aggressive cupidity of the 
Occident may hesitate to assail her. 

It has been my privilege to visit many countries in 
different parts of the world ; twice I have wandered over 
portions of the " Flowery Kingdom," and I do not hesi- 
tate to assure those who are to follow me on this jour- 



HOW ARE WE GOING ? II 

ney of observation that nowhere over the whole world 
could we see so much of the past which is still in the 
present, and so many differences in conditions of life 
from what we are accustomed to see in our home sur~ 
roundings. 

How Are We Going? 

In previous journeys I have seen China with my nat- 
ural eyes ; during this itinerary we shall see, so to speak, 
with our stereoscopic eyes; and having used both these 
media of sightseeing, I wish to state to those not al- 
ready familiar with the genuine realism of the stereo- 
graph, that its power to produce vivid and permanent 
impressions on the mind is scarcely less than that of 
one's natural vision; that it gives accuracy in size, pro- 
portion, distance and perspective; and, besides these 
things, it gives a vivid and fascinating effect that almost 
equals reality in producing pleasurable sensations and in 
giving a sort of mental emphasis which fixes all impres- 
sions. 

The stereograph tells no lies; it is binocular — it gives 
the impression that each eye would receive on the 
ground, affording essentially perfect vision and giving 
the most realistic ocular perception attainable in the 
photographic art. The telescope brings distant objects 
apparently near; the microscope magnifies the appear- 
ance of objects; the stereopticon or magic lantern mag- 
nifies images that have been produced by monocular 
vision (a single lens) — all more or less deceptive, and 
showing objects only on a single plane, while the stereo- 
graph virtually projects solid figures into space before 
us. 

Furthermore, sight is our cleverest sense in the ac- 
quisition of knowledge; to see is to know. All princi- 



12 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

pies of instruction are being more and more based on a 
recognition of this truism. Any art, device, or princi- 
ple best calculated to bring objects clearly and truthfully 
before the eyes is, therefore, surely the best means of im- 
parting instruction. 

If you cannot visit a country and see it as the traveller 
does, do the next best thing and see it through that mir- 
acle of realism, the stereograph. To make this possible 
I have spent a year in the land through which you are 
now to accompany me. 

It might be of interest to you to know that the begin- 
ning of my itinerary in China follows the conclusion of 
a year spent in the Philippine Islands, which was marked 
by all the vicissitudes and experiences of our flag-plant- 
ing in the Orient. When I reached Manila, scarcely had 
the clanking of the anchor chains ceased when all on 
board our ship were startled by the sharp popping of 
Krags and Mausers only a few miles away. This was 
soon after the first conflict between the Americans and 
the insurgents ; so that the year following embraced the 
most important events of our war in the Philippines, 
during which time I was at the front, not only in Luzon, 
but also in the southern islands of Panay and Cebu, and 
made during that time nearly nineteen hundred nega- 
tives representing war, life and industrial scenes. 

Then I proceeded to China, where I stereographed 
many hundreds of places, though time and space will 
permit us to visit through the stereoscope only a single 
hundred, and these will take us to some of the more 
important treaty ports, some of the interior cities of 
China, and then into the midst of the Boxer uprising, 
or the war of China against the world; and this, it is 
hoped, will stimulate a desire to more fully understand 
this peculiar country and her people. 



HOW TO USE STEREOGRAPHS. 13 

How to Use Stereographs. 

a. Experiment with the isliding-rack which holds the 
stereograph until you find the distance that suits the 
focus of your own eyes. This distance varies greatly 
with different people. 

b. Have a strong, steady light on the stereograph. 
This is often best obtainable by sitting with the back 
toward window or lamp, letting the light fall over one's 
shoulder on the face of the stereograph. 

c. Hold the stereograph with the hood close against 
the forehead and temples, shutting off entirely all imme- 
diate surroundings. The less you are conscious of 
things close about you the more strong will be your 
feeling of actual presence in the scenes you are studying. 

d. Make constant use of the special patented maps in 
the back of this book. First, read the statements in re- 
gard to the location an the appropriate maps, of a place 
you are about to see, so as to have already in mind, when 
you look at a given scene, just where you are and what 
is before you. After looking at the scene for the pur- 
pose of getting your location and the points of the "com- 
pass clear, then read the explanatory comments on it. 
You will like to read portions of the text again after 
once looking at the stereograph, and then return to the 
view. Repeated returns to the text may be desirable 
where there are many details to be discovered. But read 
through once the text that bears on the location of each 
stereograph before taking up the stereograph in ques- 
tion; in this way you will know just where you are, and 
the feeling of actual presence on the ground will be 
much more real and satisfactory. On the maps you will 
find given the exact location of each successive stand- 
point (at the apex of the red V in most cases) and the 
exact range of the view obtained from that standpoint 



14 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

(shown in each case by the space included between the 
spreading arms of the V). The map system is admir- 
ably clear and satisfactory, giving an accurate idea of 
the progress of the journey and really making one feel, 
after a little, quite at home among the streets of Can- 
ton and Pekin. 

e. Go slowly. Tourists are often reproached for their 
nervously hurried and superficial ways of glancing at 
sights in foreign lands. Travel by means of stereo- 
graphs encourages leisurely and thoughtful enjoyment 
of whatever is worth enjoying. You may linger as long 
as you like in any particularly interesting spot, without 
fear of being left behind by train or steamboat. Indeed, 
you may return to the same spot as many times as you 
like without any thought of repeated expense! Herein 
lies one of the chief delights of China-in-stereographs — 
its easy accessibility. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

" I felt I was right on the spot/' said a man, as he leaned 
back in his chair and took his head from the stereoscope 
in which he had been looking along the crowded wharves 
of Canton. Though one might not at first think so, this 
remark was descriptive of the facts of this man's experi- 
ence. Let us see if we cannot show in a few minutes that 
this is true. 

It is now being recognized that with the proper atten- 
tion and the appropriate helps, maps, etc., a person can 
obtain in the stereoscope a definite sense or experience of 
geographical location in that part of the earth he sees rep- 
resented before him. Moreover, it is recognized that to 
get this sense of location means that we have gained not 
merely the same visual impressions in all essential respects 
that we would gain if there in body, but also part of the 
very same feelings we would experience there; the only 
difference in the feelings being one of quantity or intensity, 
not of kind. 

But some one objects probably that this man's experi- 
ence in connection with the stereoscope could not have 
been a real experience of being in Canton, because it was 
not the real Canton before him. 

But what would be this man's object in going as a 
traveller to Canton ? As a traveller he certainly does not 



1 6 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

go to possess himself of that city's material buildings and 
streets. No traveller brings any material houses or fields 
back with him. No, the object of the traveller in going so 
far, at the cost of so much time and trouble, is to get cer- 
tain experiences of being in China. It is not the land, but 
the experiences he is after. 

This makes it clear, then, that in whatever place he 
stands he is concerned with two kinds of realities. First 
the earth, people, trees, the realities of the physical world ; 
second, the states of his consciousness, made up of 
thoughts, emotions, desires, the realities of his mental or 
soul life. The physical realities which are so often thought 
of as the only realities, serve simply as the means of in- 
ducing the states of consciousness, the mental reality, the 
end sought. 

Now it will be easier to understand how it is possible for 
us to be dealing with genuine experiences of travel in the 
stereoscope. For we can see that proving there is no real 
Canton before a man in the stereoscope does not prove 
there is no real soul state within him, no genuine experi- 
ence of being in Canton. " In the stereoscope we are 
dealing with realities, but they are the realities of soul 
states, not the reaHties of outward physical things." We 
cannot see too clearly, then, that on this stereoscopic tour, 
we may have real experiences of being in China.* 

But to get these experiences in connection with the rep- 



Send for our booklets, " Lig^ht on Stereographs" and "The Stereoscope and 
Stereoscopic Photographs," by Oliver Wendel Holmes. See article, " Extraor- 
dinary Results from Stereoscopic Photographs," in the magazine 7he Stereo- 
scopic Photography March, 1902. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 7 

resentation of a place in the stereoscope, certain conditions 
must be observed. We must look intently and with some 
thought, not only of the location of what is before us, but 
also of what exists, though we do not see it, on our right 
or left or behind us. We certainly could not expect to 
gain a definite consciousness or experience of location in 
any place, unless we knew where that place was and what 
were its surroundings. 

To give people this knowledge in connection with the 
stereographs, a new patent map system has been devised 
and patented. There are eight maps and plans made ac- 
cording to this system which are used with the complete 
China tour. Three of these maps, Nos. 2, 6 and 7, are 
given in the back of this booklet for this special tour from 
Cheefoo to Taku and Tien-tsin. 

Opening now Map No. 2, we find in outline the eastern 
part of China, from French or Indo-China on the sotith to 
Russian Siberia on the north. Here we can get in mind 
the route of the complete tour through China. The first 
place visited is Hongkong, found on the seacoast in the 
most southern part of the Empire. The red line which 
starts from this city and extends toward the north along 
the seacoast, and into the country at several points, indi- 
cates the route to be followed. Noting this route more 
carefully now, we see that a person proceeds inland nearly 
a hundred miles from Hongkong to Canton ; returning, he 
goes along the coast nearly a thousand miles to Shanghai. 
From Shanghai he takes a special trip to Ningpo, over one 
hundred miles south ; to Soo-chow, fifty miles northeast ; 



1 8 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

then to Hankow, six hundred miles up the Yang-tse- 
Kiang. From that great inland tea port of China he goes 
one hundred miles south into the country to Matin. On 
the return trip down the Yang-tse-Kiang, stops are made 
at Kinkow and Nankin. Reaching the coast again the 
next stop is at Cheefoo, nearly five hundred miles north. 
After Cheefoo, he proceeds directly to the seat of wat* 
operations of the allied nations against China, at Taku, 
Tien-tsin and Pekin. The rectangles in red on this Map 
No. 2 indicate the sections of the country given on a larger 
scale on special maps. 

In this booklet we have to do with the Tour through 
Cheefoo, Taku and Tien-tsin, which is based upon twenty- 
six stereographs. 



OUR COMPLETE 

CHINA ^^TOUR.^^ 

consists of One Hundred Original Stereo= 
scopic Photographs of the more important 
places in Switzerland, arranged in the same 
order a tourist might visit them. M. S. 
Emery acts as a personal guide in an ac= 
companying book of 358 pages. In this 
book are also given Ten Maps of our new 
patented system, specially devised for the 
purpose of showing the route and definitely 
locating the stereographs. Educators say 
that by the proper use of stereographs, with 
these maps, people may gain genuine experi»» 
ences of travel. 



THIS SECTION 

is taken in full and without alteration from 
the larger book, and is to accompany twenty- 
six stereographs. 



176 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 



THE BOXER UPRISING: JOURNEY TO THE 
SEAT OF WAR. 

Even before we set out on our itinerary at Hongkong., 
in January, a slight agitation in the poHtical world was 
caused by the abdication of Emperor Kwangsu. Early 
in the following May an uprising in the northern pro- 
vinces of Shansi and Pichili began to create alarm. Se- 
cret societies were organized, or rather, orders which 
had had a long previous existence were revived. Chief 
among these were the I-Ho-Chuan, or, " Fist of Right- 
eous Harmony,'' and the Ta-Tao-Hui — '* Sword Society." 
All members of these organizations became known as 
Boxers, which is a free interpretation of the literal — 
'' Fist of Rig^hteous Harmony." And now we must 
change our field of observation from peaceful aspects of 
Chinese life to that latest Chinese crisis widely known 
as the Boxer uprising. During the time we have been 
up the Yang-tse many stirring events have transpired; 
seventy native Christians have been massacred at 
Paoting-fu. On May 29, 1900, the very day on which 
we started from Hankow in the house-boat, the Boxers 
attacked the railway station near Pekin and cut off com- 
munication with Tien-tsin and the outside world. The 
Ministers at Pekin had asked for a dispatch of guards, 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 77 

and four hundred and fifty had arrived on the 4th of 
June. Boxers were reported marching on Pekin. On 
the I2th of June an additional international force, two 
thousand strong, had started from Tien-tsin under Ad- 
miral Seymour. This force was driven back with three 
hundred and twelve killed or wounded. Tien-tsin was 
surrounded by large numbers. The different nations 
were hurriedly preparing to dispatch ships and troops 
to the scene of action. These were the exciting mes- 
sages on the lips of every one when we returned to 
Shanghai. Next, word came that the forts at Taku 
had been captured with a loss to the Chinese of four 
hundred, and of twenty-one to the fleet. I hurried to the 
post for mail and then to the Consulate, where I found 
awaiting me a dispatch directing me to proceed at once 
to Taku. I readily understood it was urgent to be at 
once at the front. I hastened to the different steamship 
offices, and, fortunately, found a boat which was to sail 
for Cheefoo on the following morning. Two and a 
half days was required to reach that port, which is only 
about twelve hours from Taku (see map of Eastern 
China, Map No. 2). 

In the meantime, permit me to offer some opinions on 
this last demonstration of agitators in China. Notwith- 
standing all that has been said and written about Boxers 
and the Boxer movement, it is very difficult to determine 
the cause and object of this uprising. It is generally 
admitted, as I have elsewhere stated, that the Chinese 
are a docile and peace-loving people, and yet, social agi- 



178 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

tations are not infrequent, and the great Taiping Re- 
bellion, in which over twenty million lives were sacri- 
ficed, occurred only forty years ago. An old proverb 
says: '' Beware of the wrath of the patient man." The 
most peace-loving sometimes become rebellious, and 
when such is the case desperation marks the conflict. 
It will scarcely be denied that want sows the seeds of 
revolution and rebellion, and when the struggle for exist- 
ence becomes general and prolonged, suffering human- 
ity will organize into protective unions, or into I-Ho- 
Chuan Societies. China's great fertility and her vast ter- 
ritorial area are sometimes insufficient for her teeming 
millions, especially in the North, where whole provinces 
are often famine-stricken by reason of flood or drought 
or pestilence. An empty stomach does not make for 
peace, either in the. home or in the State. The Taiping 
Rebellion, the most bloody, disastrous and long-contin- 
ued that has occurred in China in modern times, was 
inaugurated by a secret organization of insurrectionaries 
with the usual high-sounding name, Taipings, which sig- 
nifies " grand peace/* with the ostensible purpose of over- 
throwing the Manchu dynasty, whose corrupt and op- 
pressive administration of affairs had exhausted the pa- 
tience as well as the earnings of the people; in other 
words, it was hunger that brought about that bloody 
revolution. Want and peace cannot dwell together. A 
few years ago about ten millions are said to have died 
of starvation in the northern provinces bordering on the 
Hoang Ho, a river which has been called '' China's Sor- 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 79 

row," because of the loss of life caused by flood, famine 
and pestilence. This same poverty-stricken region has 
been the nursery of Boxers. While, then, I regard stress 
of environment as the primal cause of nearly all in- 
surrectionary uprisings, the immediate causes often ap- 
pear to be something quite different to the ignorant and 
unreasoning insurgent. The Boxer, in his struggle for 
existence, sees the cause in commercial encroachments; 
he sees the railway driving his wheelbarrow and carry- 
pole out of business ; he sees the steamboat supplanting 
the house-boat and the sampan ; he sees the modern car- 
riage and bicycle relegating the sedan chair ; he sees all 
kinds of machinery interfering with his manual labor. 
His Confucian classics never taught him how it is possi- 
ble for a missionary to do a benevolent work. He looks 
upon him as the emissary and forerunner of foreign 
commercialism. Altruism is not in the Confucian code. 
I believe that any of us with a mind cast in the same 
mould and with the same training for generations, would 
be little, if any, different. An illiterate and superstitious 
populace will never discover first causes; struggle and 
stress of circumstances, then, sets the Boxer to looking 
around for the immediate cause of his ill conditions; he 
may turn against the ruling dynasty, or against the in- 
troduction of railroads, or against coercive land-grabs, 
or against the beneficent hand which has come from dis- 
tant lands to lift him into better conditions. Then there 
are Boxer leaders and Boxer followers — the more intelli- 
gent and the ignorant horde who will play the Boxer 



l8o CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

for plunder. But it is well to remind ourselves again 
that after all human nature is much the same the world 
over. When times are dull and distress prevails, a popu- 
lar howl goes up against the government administra- 
tion, or an army of malcontents marches on Washing- 
ton, or a wailing and lamentation is heard about unre- 
stricted immigration. Western countries are full of Box- 
ers; but efficient military forces keep them in check. 
It has always been so, and will probably always remain 
so. Throughout all nature there must always be a cer- 
tain amount of imperfection; the consequence is dis- 
tress; the attempted remedy is I-Ho-Chuan Societies, 
under many different names. I use the words '' must 
always be" advisedly; some I know will not agree with 
this ; but I mean, of course, until the millennial days when 
the rose shall be thornless and the bee shall be without 
sting and when "the lamb and the lion shall lie down 
together." Until then human nature will continue to 
be human nature, or, in other words, there shall con- 
tinue to be " wars and rumors of wars," and Boxers of 
many sorts. 

As I entered the harbor of Cheefoo (see map of East- 
ern China, Map No. 2) two grim men-of-war anchored 
in the offing emphasized the fact to me that I was near- 
ing the theater of impending war. Two forts, one on 
either side of the city, bristling with heavy ordnance, 
command the harbor and the town. The gims of the 
warships and those of the forts were trained one on the 
other. Big guns are always grim visaged, but when 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. l8l 

loaded and trained on an enemy there is mortal gravity 
in their sullen muzzles. These forts are on high bluffs, 
one a mile east and the other about the same distance 
west of the city; with glasses all the movements of the 
men at the forts could be seen. A part of the time the 
guns were trained on the European settlement and at 
other times on the warships in the roadstead. On go- 
ing ashore I found the Europeans in a state of nervous 
anxiety bordering on panic. Cheefoo is a large city, and 
while no overt acts of hostility had thus far occurred, 
large numbers of Boxers were reported to be in the vi- 
cinity, and the most trifling affair would be sufficient to 
turn the treacherous hordes of the city into a fiendish 
mob. The giant English cruiser '' Terrible " lay at 
anchor a mile off shore, with her decks cleared for action 
and her monstrous black broadside grim with venge- 
ful guns trained on the forts. Several hundred marines 
were held in readiness to land at the shortest notice. 
This gave a slight feeling of security; yet it was well 
known that the forts could lay waste the city in a few 
hours. We will ascend a hill overlooking the harbor, the 
settlement, and the native city. This eminence is some- 
times called Consulate Hill, because several of the for- 
eign consulates are located on it. On this hill also is 
the signal-station on which we take our stand. 

43. Cheefoo, One of China's Important Seaports, from 
Signal Tower, looking Mast. 

We are looking slightly south of east toward the 



1 82 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

rocky, barren hills which encircle the bay at some dis- 
tance. The harbor is to the north, that is, to our rigiht. 
Those hills extend on the left to the sea and terminate 
in a promontory on which is located one of the forts 
mentioned. Several Europeans have their homes at the 
foot of those hills ; you can faintly distinguish one near 
the center of our field of vision a trifle to the right. The 
family from that home I found quartered at one of the 
hotels. Fearing an attack from the Boxers, they gath- 
ered a few more valuable articles and hastened to the 
security of the settlement, leaving their home in the care 
of native servants. The Foreign Concession includes all 
that flat land lying near the water, and the French Con- 
sulate lies midway between the little English church 
near the beach and the farthest limit of our vision. The 
first building on this side of the small church, with 
shrubbery in front, is a hotel ; a second hotel stands next 
to the one just designated and on the opposite side of 
a narrow street leading out to the beach between them. 
The nearer building with four windows in a line toward 
us is the Club House, before which on the beach sev- 
eral modem row-boats are drawn out. And notice those 
sampans beyond ; I will soon tell you how suddenly those 
were requisitioned. The English Consulate is below at 
our left ; the American and German behind us. We are 
here looking southeast, and Taku is toward the north- 
west, and nearly half-way between us and Taku, at the 
time I was here, lay the U. S. battleship " Oregon " fast 
upon the rocks. You see the English flag on the yard 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 83 

of the signal-Staff ; this, with the one black ball, indicates 
the movement of an English ship, probably the arrival 
or departure of a warship. Those hotels were filled with 
missionaries and other refugees; bedding, boxes and 
bundles filled the courts of the hotels; some had come 
from stations in the interior, some from Tien-tsin, others 
from Pekin by the last train before the railway was de- 
stroyed. They were all fleeing to places of safety — 
some were awaiting a ship for Chemulpo in Corea, some 
were bound for Japan, others for Shanghai and ports 
southward, and many for their homes in Europe and 
America. There were all kinds and orders of men, wom- 
en and children; there were arrivals and departures of 
refugees daily and hourly; the Consuls were busy, each 
looking after his own people. The American Consul 
had chartered a ship and sent it to bring some seventy- 
five missionaries from a remote station. Let us go down 
and see them land. 

44. Missionary Refugees Fleeing from the Boxers. 
I^anding at Cbeefoo. 

The missionaries are here landing from sampans, 
carrying their children and portable belongings; they 
lined timidly from the boats to the hotels — a matron 
leading a child, a father carrying a babe, a band of coolies 
carrying baggage, a man with a tennis set, another 
mournfully pushing a disabled bicycle — all with the same 
dual expression on their countenances, that of long 
anxiety and final deliverance. I was surprised to see 



184 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

SO many children among the missionaries, but my sur- 
prise was quite moderated when I learned that there is 
a premium on progeny in the mission fields; and that 
for each child born an annuity is added to the income 
of the lucky parents. I could not but wish that this be- 
nign principle were applied to other vocations. The ship 
chartered by the Consul lies out at anchor ; some are land- 
ing here, others on the beach near the hotels we saw from 
our last position. You see the sun-hats worn by the mis- 
sionaries of both sexes. Even these northern points in 
China for two or three months in summer are intensely 
hot. 

To be prepared for an unexpected attack, many of the 
Europeans kept sampans in readiness by which they could, 
on a moment's warning, make for the warships. Taku is 
two hundred miles distant, and all merchant ships stop at 
Cheefoo. Yet I found it next to impossible to obtain pas- 
sage to the former place. Warships proceeded only to the 
allied fleet, which lay ten miles off shore at T.aku. Corre- 
spondents from all parts were arriving and hounding con- 
suls and naval commanders for transportation to the 
front, or at least to some point nearer the scene of activi- 
ties. War conditions were everywhere manifest; it was 
every one for himself; no reliable information could be 
obtained about anything ; all kinds of rumors were afloat. 
Several times a day I visited all the shipping offices and 
the consulates seeking for transportation. Europeans 
who had homes in the vicinity of Cheefoo moved into the 
settlement, bringing their more valuable portables* 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 85 

Every one sought information, but could fine none ; there 
was a perplexing mystery about all movements, and mys- 
tery always increases apprehension. After I had been in 
Cheefoo three days, this apprehensiveness reached a 
climax. Russian agents had engaged several hundred 
coolies to work on the Siberian Railway ; they were placed 
on board a ship for transportation to Vladivostok when 
some misunderstanding about pay arose ; then a suspicion 
was aroused among them that they were to become con- 
scripts for military service in the Russian army. They 
left the ship in rage and consternation, came ashore in 
sampans, when thousands of coolies and the rabble of the 
city gathered around them until the streets near the land- 
ing were blocked by a mob of many thousands. This was 
at once construed as a Boxer uprising ; the people of the 
settlement were thrown into a frenzy of terror; women 
fled to the small boats on the beach and were soon well out 
toward the warships; a small band of volunteers which 
had been organized for protection and composed of clerks 
and shopkeepers instantly donned their cartridge belts, 
seized their guns and formed across the street, at the far- 
ther end of which was a solid mass of infuriated coolies 
held back by a cordon of native police. Missionaries with 
Winchesters and citizens with shot-guns joined the volun- 
teers. Every man's face showed an expression of fight 
" to the death." Messengers had been sent to the Taotai 
(mayor) of the native city to call out the native troops. 
He soon arrived in his official chair, accompanied by his 
usual retinue of subordinate functionaries, followed by a 



1 86 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

band of soldiers armed, not with their guns, but with bam- 
boo flagellators. After a conference between the Taotai 
and the European officials, the former harangued the mob, 
but it refused to disperse, whereupon he ordered the 
troops to charge with bamboos. Then followed the fun- 
niest onslaught I have ever seen. It was a spectacle that 
was suddenly changed from impending horror to the irre- 
sistibly ludicrous; a band of imperial soldiers, backed by 
a line of native police, rushed upon this impenetrable 
mass of bareheaded coolies, pelting heads and barebacks 
with relentless fury ; the cracks of the bamboos resounded 
through the streets ; they laid on heavy and fast ; the front 
lines of the mob took the brunt, as the great mass was too 
solid to be quickly moved. Those in the forefront howled 
with pain. The Taotai sat in his chair and urged on the 
attack; the vigorously laid on strokes rang like pistol 
shots ; after several minutes the dense black crowd began 
to fall asunder, when the soldiers could better distribute 
their blows ; soon the wilderness of black heads was a pell- 
mell of ignominious flight, and what might have proved a 
bloody uprising was averted. The small plucky band of 
shopkeepers and missionaries returned to their several 
places of abode, the terrified women who were in sampans 
off shore were rowed back, and the consternation gradu- 
ally subsided; but it was a baptismal scene in the Boxer 
war not to be forgotten, and showed, moreover, the 
magical efficacy of the bamboo as an arbitrator. After 
five days a German merchant ship arrived, bound for 
Taku; I secured passage and on the following day 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 87 

reached the naval fleet lying ten miles off the mouth of the 
Pei-ho, in the bay of Pichili. 

It was a magnificent array of warships and capable of 
inflicting punishment upon the Boxers if they could have 
been placed within range. Our ship anchored with the 
fleet over night ; on the following morning we entered the 
mouth of the river amidst the ships and forts whose deaflly 
conflicts only a few days before had sent a thrill of horror 
over the civilized world. We landed on the south bank 
of the Pei-ho, proceeded a few hundred yards back from 
the river, and ascended a pilot tower, from which we ob- 
tained a panoramic view in the very center of the scene of 
action which resulted in the capture of the Taku forts» 

Turn with me now to Map No. 6. This map gives us a 
sketch of the Pei-ho River from the Pichili Bay to a point 
about six miles inland, including the sites of the forts at 
Taku and the town of Tongku. Find the number 45 in 
red, inclosed in a circle, and the two red lines which 
branch from this circle toward the north. We are to 
stand at the point from which these lines start, and shall 
look out over the territory the lines inclose. 

45. From PiloVs Tower, I^ooking North across the 
Pei-ho River to Noithwest Fort, Taku. 

From where we stand the mouth of the river and open 
bay is but a short distance to our right. On both sides of 
the river, at its mouth, are mud forts similar to the one we 
see on the opposite side of the river. The latter is known 
as the Northwest Fort. It is the one which was nearest 



I88 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

to the warships which are anchored in the river some dis- 
tance toward the left. It is the one first attacked and cap- 
tured by a mixed force from the combined fleet. Almost 
directly behind us are several other forts, little more than 
a half mile distant; these, with the North Fort and the 
Northwest Fort before us, at one o'clock on Sunday 
morning on June 17, 1900, opened fire with all their guns 
on the small warships which were lying in that narrow 
stream off to the left. The contest was hot, but of short 
duration, as by 7 o'clock in the morning two of the forts 
had been blown up and all the others carried by assault. 
The particulars of that battle are familiar to every one, but 
no written description can ever convey to you so vivid an 
idea of the appearance of the now famous mud forts at 
Taku, the river, and the surrounding country, as this op- 
portunity to view them for yourself. You see the level 
mud flats extending to the horizon ; the view is the same 
in every direction, except toward the sea. Now you can 
tell exactly how those forts appear; you can even distin- 
guish the patches of clay detached by the impact of shell. 
You can almost see the guns on the wall ; you can see the 
flag-poles and flags ; indeed, that near pole is not only a 
flag-pole, it is also used for sending dispatches to the fleet 
by wireless telegraphy. These mud forts are not so crude 
and defenseless as many are led to suppose from the term 
mud. They consist of vast masses of well-put-up clay, 
which offers more effective resistance to shell than solid 
masonry ; but how they are built, and how mounted with 
the most improved ordnance, you will see better when we 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 89 

take our next position on the top of the wall of the North- 
west Fort, at the left-hand corner, in line with that war- 
ship. From that position we shall look down the river 
toward its mouth and the North Fort. Let me call your 
attention briefly to the buildings near us, that you may 
know how the houses in Taku are built, and not only in 
Taku, but throughout the whole valley of the Pei-ho to 
Pekin — I mean of mud, though what you see here are 
well-made houses and occupied by Europeans. The two 
buildings at our feet are portions of the T.aku Hotel, 
which I occupied on three different occasions. The near 
building on the left is the dining-room of the hotel. These 
so-called mudhouses have walls and roof built up of bun- 
dles of reeds coated with the universal clay of these allu- 
vial plains. The countless villages and towns scattered 
over these vast northern tracts are constructed largely of 
mud or clay ; they have a miserable appearance, but they 
are warm and inexpensive. A mudhouse to accommodate 
a small family does not cost half the sum required to build 
a ' well-to-do farmer's pighouse in Western countries. 
This part of Taku is known as Pilot-Tpwn, because it is 
the home of many pilots whose services are in great de- 
mand on account of the difficulties in navigating the shal- 
low and tortuous river. Our position here is on the top 
of a pilot's lookout ; you may see another lookout beyond 
the line of buildings on our left. Some small dry-docks 
are located here ; also repair shops that give employment 
to a few Europeans. Before leaving this pilot's lookout, 
I must call your attention to a causeway which begins at 



190 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

the right-hand side of that Northwest Fort ; it extends to 
the North Fort on the same side of the river and which 
we can see better from our next position. 

Now we are to descend, cross the river in a sampan 
and enter that Northwest Fort at the gateway at the 
southeast angle; we shall ascend the wall at the southwest 
angle and stand beside a modern gun which did its share 
of damage to the fleet of the allies and still remains intact. 

On the map of Taku our position is given by the red 
lines which branch toward the southeast from the encir- 
cled number 46. 

46. I^ooking down the Pei-bo River toward the North 
Fort and Bay, from Northwest Fort, Taku. 

How many things you may learn from this one pros- 
pect ! Again you can see the character of the surround- 
ing country; you can see the bay of Pichili and almost 
descry some of the nearer ships of the fleet ten miles away. 
In that stretch of water, near the mouth of the river, lies 
the great obstruction to ships entering the river ; I mean a 
sand-bar lying only a mile or two out from the mouth of 
the river, and on which often may be seen several ships 
entrapped by low water and awaiting high tide. You can 
see shipping on the river, the width of the Pei-ho, and 
almost the muddy character of the water ; you can see the 
North Fort with the flag of the victor flying over it; you 
can see the long causeway, leading from the fort on which 
we stand to the North Fort. Along that causeway the 
attacking allies advanced from this Northwest Fort. You 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. I91 

can see how exposed they were; they could not advance 
over the level ground in open order, as it is covered with 
mud and water so that the daring sally was made in close 
order over that long distance. The causeway was a little 
Thermopylae. This sentinel told me that a handful of old 
women (Western) in yonder fort with the guns trained on 
the causeway could have held it against ten thousand men ; 
but John Chinaman is no warrior. These have been 
called mud-forts. The term mud always conveys a sig- 
nificance of meanness which naturally leads one to con- 
sider them as crude heaps of dirt ; now that we see them, 
we find they are well-built forts with bastions, ramparts, 
moat and armament which probably could be tagged 
" made in Germany." That long breech-loading rifle was 
not made in China; that steel shield for protecting the 
gunners is up to date. It will protect the gunner from 
rifle shot, but not from larger projectiles. The shield of 
the gun next to this, on our left, was penetrated by a 
three-inch shell, and the brains and blood of the gunner 
remained spattered on the breach of the gun. This guard 
you see to our right, neatly dressed in white with his Lee- 
Metford rifle at his side, is a British Marine. A few 
English and a few Italians are left to guard this fort, 
while the other forts are held by guards from other allies. 
I must remind you that Taku is not a stopping place 
for travellers ; it is little more than a pilot station. All 
steamers with cargo and passengers for Tien-tsin and 
Pekin proceed five miles beyond Taku to Tongku. We 
shall now follow the narrow, winding Pei-ho to the latter 



tg2 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

place and from the deck of our steamer at the landing look 
out upon the ravages of war. On the Map No. 6 we find 
our position given by the red lines connected with the 
number 47. 

47. Burning of Tongku—U. S, S. '* Monocacy'' at 
Landing with Hole through Bow made by Chi- 
nese Shell. 

This scene shows Tongku a few days after the capture 
of the forts at Taku. The relief expedition under Ad- 
miral Seymour had failed to reach Pekin, and after great 
loss and privation had returned to Tien-tsin. It was 
supposed by every one that all within the legations had 
been massacred. The war was on, and every nation was 
rushing forward troops with all the hurried bustle of des- 
peration. I reached this place on the Fourth of July ; you 
see the flags out on the " Monocacy." Notwithstanding 
the gloomy news from every quarter, every foreign war- 
ship flung out the Stars and Stripes in honor of the Ameri- 
can nation's birthday. T.here was no jubilant popping of 
firecrackers, which we are wont to hear on this festal day, 
but there was the crackling of destructive flames which 
were everywhere devouring the vacated homes of the ter- 
rified inhabitants. On the following day, news came that 
the relieving force which had been dispatched to Tien-tsin 
had been driven back and might have to retreat to the sea- 
coast. There were encampments of French soldiers, Rus- 
sian soldiers and Japanese soldiers. Army stores were 
heaped up in every space near the docks. The crippled 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 93 

ships which had been in conflict at Taku were strung 
along the river in different stages of convalescence. 
Refugees were hourly arriving from Tien-tsin ; some, find- 
ing passage in departing steamers, while others found 
temporary shelter on the '' Monocacy." At low tide the 
opposite shore is lined with bloated human forms which 
have floated down from villages up the river where the 
Boxers have done their bloody work or where the Russian 
relief force slaughtered everything before it on its march 
to T.ien-tsin. 

This town was rapidly becoming the rendezvous of the 
armies of the world ; it was universal chaos come again, 

" And there was mounting in hot haste ; the steed, 
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car 
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed. 
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war." 

Every one felt that the fleet-winged hours were clipping 
life threads at Pekin. The difficulty was now to reach 
Tien-tsin and, in the meantime, to find a lodging place at 
Tongku. All railway communication was cut off, and the 
military at Tien-tsin were driving civilians away, and no 
hotel or lodging place could be found in Tpngku. Dur- 
ing the first night I was permitted to sleep on board 
the boat on which I had arrived. On the second 
day I asked for permission to sleep on the bare deck of 
the " Monocacy," but my modest request was roughly re- 
fused by the Captain, who, with the officious conse- 
quence of a man commanding nothing better than an old- 



194 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

fashioned side-wheel tub that had been thirty years poking 
her prow into the mud banks along the Yang-tse, said he 
was reserving all space for missionaries. Accompanied 
by a young Swiss gentleman, I trudged several times the 
length of the slough-bound town to obtain only space in 
which to sleep for one night, hoping the following day to 
find some way of reaching Tien-tsin. Fortimately we fell 
in with a Russian officer, who, learning of our straits for a 
lodging place, in the blandest and most hospitable manner 
told us to follow him to the railway station and he would 
find us a room where he and his fellow officers were tem- 
porarily quartered. A Russian servant was turned out 
of a small hot room which was furnished with two small 
benches ; on these we slept, each wrapping his coat about 
his head as a protection against myriads of flies— army 
flies, I suppose. I have often had occasion to entertain 
very high opinions of Russian gentility and politeness, 
while my opinions of the government are quite otherwise. 
The charming manner of a Russian gentleman is re- 
marked by every one ; and if there is one fault more con- 
spicuous than another in our own country, I should name 
it national lack of courtesy. We made a slender morning 
repast from articles we bought from the steward of the 
German ship, and then I left my companion and set out to 
find transportation to Tien-tsin. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 95 



TIEN-TSIN. 

After wandering about Tongku for some time I 
heard of a tug bound for Tien-tsin. I went on board, 
and a soldier in command said he was neither authorized 
to carry nor to refuse to carry any one. '^ Tien-tsin is the 
best place I know of to leave, just now; but go if you 
like," said the blunt commander of the little commissary 
craft. '^ Yesterday it was nip and tuck all day, and the 
Allies may be driven down here to-day, but if you are 
fond of shells bursting in your hair, go." " Well, I've 
never experienced shells in that way," I replied, " but, as 
the Chinamen say, I will have a ' look see.' " While the 
distance by rail is only some twenty-eight miles, it is forty 
by the winding course of the Pei-ho. The voyage occu- 
pied a good part of the day. Many mud villages were 
passed on the way, from most of which the inhabitants 
had fled back into the country. We were constantly pass- 
ing dead bodies floating down, and, on either bank of the 
river, at every turn, hungry dogs from the deserted vil- 
lages could be seen tearing at the swollen corpses left on 
the banks by the ebb tide. It was forty miles of country 
laid waste, deserted homes, burned villages, along a river 
polluted and malodorous with human putrefaction. At 
last I was in Tien-tsin. It was on the 5th of July. Our 
national holiday I had celebrated under most unusual con- 



196 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ditions at Tongku. The fifth presented a weird prosce- 
nium in the theater of war. The city had been reinvested ; 
the previous day had witnessed a stubbornly contested 
attack at the railway station. Everywhere were to be 
seen dreadful scenes of desolation. Conflagration had 
already laid waste the entire French Concession and a 
good part of the English; housetops were covered with 
extemporized defenses; storehouses had been employed 
to provide defensive barricades; bales of wool, bags of 
peanuts, sacks of licorice-root and sacks of rice, in enor- 
mous quantities, had been utilized for breastworks. 
Smoke was curling up everywhere from smoldering ruins. 
Scarcely had I got my luggage ashore before shells came 
crashing over the settlement. Three of the four hotels 
had been destroyed; the one remaining was occupied by 
the military. I found an empty room in a vacated Chi- 
nese compound, where I made my bivouac until driven 
out. After putting my pre-empted space into habitable 
conditions, I set out to reconnoiter war environments. 

Just before we start on our tour of exploration, we 
must get a general idea of the plan of the city. Spread 
out the map of Tien-tsin, Map No. 7. Near the center of 
the map we see the rectangular outline of the Native City, 
the heavier black line showing the course of its encom- 
passing brick wall. Many native villages are grouped 
around this inner city. The Pei-ho River winds among 
the outlying villages in a general course from the north- 
west toward the southeast. The Japanese, French, Brit- 
ish and German Concessions lie to the southeast of the 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 97 

Native City on the river's right bank ; the proposed Rus- 
sian Concession is on the left bank. An earth or mud 
wall encircles the entire area covered by the old city, the 
villages and the Foreign Concessions. The course of the 
railroad which connects Taku and Pekin is seen to the 
east of the river. By much effort I had made my way up 
the Pei-ho to a point near that first bend toward the left, 
or west. One of the first places we shall visit together Is 
the pontoon bridge made by the French opposite the 
French Concession. We are to stand as the red lines con- 
nected with the number 48 show, on the left bank of the 
river, and look toward a street and range of buildings on 
the opposite bank, a part of the French Concession. 

48. Horrors of War— Dead Chinese floating in the 
Pei-ho, showing riddled Buildings along the 
French Bundf Tien-tsin. 

Many talk of the horrors of war who know little of 
their actualities, and for that reason such a scene as this, 
though it is repulsive, is also educative; for, to know 
truly, you must see, and even this repellent scene is but a 
slight hint of war's horrors. For ten days before I came 
here, dead bodies, in incredible numbers, had been float- 
ing down the river, and, several times a day coolies were 
sent to this place with poles to set free the accumulation 
of bodies and allow them to float down stream. At this 
moment, you see, there are only four or five in view, but 
at other times there are large numbers, especially in the 
morning, after a night's accumulation. At times I have 



igS CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

seen heads and headless trunks in this flotsam of war. 
Many of these dead have been killed by the relief troop 
who first entered Tien-tsin ; others, by the second advance 
of reenforcements, and many, previously, by the Boxers 
and were probably Christian converts. Doubtless a con- 
siderable number also are suicides, for the Chinese have 
a penchant for suicide at such times. 

This part of the city, lying between the railway station 
and the French Concession, was the center of the heaviest 
firing on several occasions, and every building is gutted 
by fire or riddled with shot. We are looking nearly 
south ; the railway station is less than a quarter of a mile 
behind us and is surrounded by a suburban population. 
The shattered windows and pierced walls everywhere tell 
how the showers of shot swept everything at this point. 
You see the shell mementoes on this building at the right ; 
there are other buildings along this Bund even more thor- 
oughly scarred than those. Many of the trees that line 
the side of the street have been shot through until they 
toppled over. The cross streets that terminate here, are 
barricaded for a mile or over along this Bund. The only 
water supply for troops and citizens is before you. Mili- 
tary orders were given that no water should be used un- 
less boiled ; but the order was often disregarded. Soldiers 
frequently have little regard for sanitary orders or law, 
and have a happy way of turning privations and hard- 
ships into fun. After all, we have here only a hint of 
war's destruction and sacrifice. These poor fellows will, 
in their turn, float down the river to feed the starving 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 99 

dogs of the river-side villages, and yet, they are some- 
body's dear ones, and none will ever know how many 
thousands have been thus borne away uncofiined on the 
turbid waters of the Pei-ho. 

We will leave this grewsome scene, pass out upon the 
Bund, and turning to the left, follow it for a mile down- 
stream to a point in the river where small boats depart 
for Tongku. I wish I could show you all the scenes we 
pass in that mile along the Bund. At this time a walk 
along this street on the river is a perilous undertaking — 
*' sniping " is constantly going on and there is scarcely 
a minute when one cannot hear the ominous hiss of pass- 
ing bullets. Once I stood talking with a soldier, only for 
a few moments, when he ejaculated : '' Come out of this ! 
Didn't you hear that bullet come between us ? " We were 
not more than three feet apart. We concluded our confab 
behind a wall. At length we arrive at the place where 
barges have been brought in to convey native Christian 
refugees to Tongku and other places of safety. In watch- 
ing them embark we shall stand on the west bank of the 
river and look east. See red lines connected with the 
number 49 on the map. 

4g. Native Christians Fleeing from the Boxers— Chi- 
nese Refugees being taken away from Tien-tsin. 

It is evident from the flight of these poor native Chris- 
tians that there is still no security for life here in Tien- 
tsin ; even after the arrival of ten thousand foreign troops, 
a feeling of anxiety and uncertainty prevails. All indica- 



200 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

tions are that additions of both Boxers and Imperial 
soldiers are daily being brought into the native city. We 
see before us only a handful of native Christians, many 
women and children among them, with coolies to assist 
in carrying a few bundles which contain all they have left 
of material possessions. There is a vast crowd on the 
shore to our right. The order has been given to go 
aboard, and these are the first of the line from an assem- 
blage that will pack that big iron barge; and thus they 
have been leaving since the river was cleared for the pas- 
sage of boats. What sad stories these forsaken, destitute 
refugees could tell ! They go they know not where ; they 
know not whether they will ever return ; their homes are 
burned; their friends are scattered and many of them 
killed. You see British officers on board and British ma- 
rines here and there assisting with embarkation. These 
refugees are from the English missions. Other missions 
have their flocks of the helpless and homeless to look 
after. Hundreds of little children are here who cannot 
understand what it all means. Their mothers can only 
tell them that their own bad people have burned their 
homes and now seek to kill them, but the foreigner will 
save them; this is all they can be made to understand; 
they have curious little child-thoughts of their own about 
it all, but with undiminished faith in maternal guardian- 
ship, they cling to their mother's hand, unconscious of 
their hapless fate. 

All refugees did not flee from Tien-tsin. It was not pos- 
sible for all to find means of flight. We will leave these 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 20I . 

fleeing refugees now and retrace our steps over half a mile 
along the river bank to the Church of the Apostolic Mis* 
sion, where there are assembled and fed between five and 
six hundred refugees. See number 50 in red on the map. 

50. Chinese Christian Refugees gathered by leather 
Quilloux into the Apostolic Mission during the 
Bombardment of Tien-tsin^ 

This church is situated on the boundary between the 
English and French Concessions, and escaped, in quite an 
extraordinary way, destruction from both fire and shell, 
although in the direct line of bombardment. It is a 
French Catholic Church and Mission, at the head of which 
is the Rev. C. M. Quilloux. Soon after my arrival in 
Tien-tsin I met this worthy father, who told me how large 
a flock he was sheltering and feeding in the basements and 
cellars of his church and other church buildings. I ex- 
pressed a desire to obtain a stereograph of his multitu- 
dinous wards during such a crisis. He said if I would 
come on the following day, he would do what he could 
to induce his terrified flock to leave the cellars and come 
out into the court for a few minutes, but I must be in 
readiness to operate quickly and not expose them too long 
to the bursting shells. They were all notified to be in 
readiness at a given hour, and when I had taken my posi- 
tion. Father Quilloux and another father led the way out 
into the open yard, followed by this cowering host — ^men, 
women and children — young and old. Scarcely had they 
assembled when a shell burst overhead with the crash of a 



202 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

near thunderbolt ; they ducked and trembled and began to 
show an agony of impatience, when Father Quilloux 
called out from his position in front : " Be quick ! They 
are afraid ! " The work was done hastily, and it did not 
seem that the w^hole time occupied could exceed three 
minutes, and yet three shells exploded very near during 
that brief space. You may notice all conditions of people 
in this gathering; on the left, near the front, are three 
small children carried in arms; further back, on the left, 
I see two gray heads ; on the right, in front, some fairly 
pretty girls. I asked Father Quilloux to place the women 
in front, I suppose, because they are more picturesque. 
He told me he had great difficulty in finding sufficient food 
for so many people. They subsisted almost entirely on a 
small allowance of rice. Up to that time only a few had 
died. He pointed out to me a fresh grave, near us on 
the left, where on the previous day he had buried one of 
them. These were days that tried the faith and courage 
of men and these faithful fathers did not forsake their 
flocks. 

What you have already seen must give you some inti- 
mation of the condition of Tien-tsin when I arrived. A 
hundred sights in Tien-tsin alone would give you a fuller 
conception, but even the greatest number could not tell 
you all. It is impossible to picture the apprehension of 
faces on the street — the roar of bursting shells and 
deadly ^smaller missiles that filled the air. Subterranean 
housekeepers cannot be " sculptured by the sun " nor can 
pale, fear-stricken faces peering out of cellar windows; 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 203 

nor the measured tread of soldiers at all hours of day and 
night; nor the thrilling bugle-calls in every direction. 
Just across the way, too, is a full hospital, and the still- 
ness about it is solemn and awe-inspiring. These things 
cannot be portrayed by any cunning of the camera. The 
number of troops is daily increasing. The transportation 
of commissary stores for all the different troops fills the 
streets with every form of nondescript conveyance — army 
wagons, carts, *' rikishas," wheelbarrows, pole-coolies, 
confiscated carriages. A few European women were still 
left in the Concession. At one time, when the fire from 
the enemy was becoming stronger and the rout of the 
Allies was imminent, a weeping and disconsolate little 
English mother came running across the street to a near 
neighbor with this pitiful and tragic request : " Now, Mr. 

, won't you promise to shoot my children if they 

get in? " " No, I'll be d d if I will ! " replied the neigh- 
bor. This horrible request was prompted by maternal 
love; its fulfillment would have been humane, in com- 
parison with an assured butchery by the enemy ; but, come 
what would, the manly neighbor could not, even in the 
name of humanity, promise to take the lives of sweet little 
children with whom he had been wont to play. 

From here I went south again into the British Conces- 
sion to the public water hydrant, where the soldiers of the 
Allies and the natives mingled. See the red lines con- 
nected with the number 51, a short distance to the left of 
our former position by the river (Stereograph 49). 



2o4 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

5x. Strange Medley from many Nations at the Public 
Water Hydrant during Foreign Occupation of 
Tien-tsin. 

Water is forced from the Pei-ho to the settlement by 
a steam-pump on the bank of the river. The demand for 
water was so great that these hydrants were opened 
only twice a day; at such times all the nations were 
represented by water-carriers with all sorts of vessels, 
and here we see them at the hydrant waiting their turns. 
Not all the nations are represented here ; but I can make 
out four; the Russians, being encamped on the other 
side of the river, are not to be seen; it also happens at 
this moment that no English soldiers are present, except 
the Indians, who are under the English. We see the 
turbaned Hindoos in goodly numbers. They have new- 
ly arrived and are quartered a short distance up that 
street where the British marines were previously quar- 
tered; hence the presence of Hindoos and the absence 
of the English. Those Indians are fine, large men, and 
their moral and military bearing is highly commendable ; 
they are accustomed to carry water in skins, which are 
included in their camp outfit in their own country; these 
skins, filled with water, are carried on the backs of 
donkeys. Two American soldiers are in charge of the 
hydrant. To facilitate the supply, there is a hose on one 
side and a stop-cock on the other, one man to attend 
to each. There is a cart with a copper boiler in it, prob- 
ably found in some native house. The coolies have a 



CHINA tHROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 20S 

tub, and there are two five-gallon kerosene oil-cans near 
the little smart Jap with his clean, white suit. 

This street, a little beyond the farthest point in sight, 
was crossed by a breastwork composed of bags of rice; 
just before us it was defended by the ancient cheval-de- 
frise. Those low buildings on the right were pierced by 
several shells. They are cooking-houses and sleeping- 
places for the servants of well-to-do English families 
living in adjoining houses facing on a street called Vic- 
toria Terrace; but the occupants had fled, leaving the 
houses in care of a gentleman, who gave me permission 
to occupy one of the them. Before this time I had 
taken shelter, as before stated, in a vacated room of a 
Chinese home, but after three nights my room was 
claimed by officers of the United States Marines, when I 
removed to one of those houses opposite us. Here I 
lodged for two nights, when I was again compelled to 
give up my extemporized dormitory on a sofa to other 
officers. The Ninth United States Infantry had arrived 
from the Philippines and every available house was com- 
mandeered. One of the shells which passed through 
that wall by the trees, on the right-hand side of this 
street, exploded in passing through the wall and the 
fragments entered the room I occupied and lodged in 
the back of a fine piano ; but each night I took the pre- 
caution to haul the sofa on which I slept behind some 
interior wall. These houses were of brick, and one wall 
of brick was sufficient to explode a shell and a second 
would stop the fragments; but those failing to explode 



2o6 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

would pass through several brick walls. The bombard- 
ment was intermittent ; sometimes for a half-day scarce- 
ly a shot would be fired; then it would be resumed 
again, possibly at midnight, or at some hour in the night. 
When awakened by the explosion of a shell further sleep 
was impossible. The few people left in the settlement 
were worn out by broken sleep and apprehension. Those 
not experienced in conditions of war, and especially of 
bombardment, cannot possibly imagine the startling ef- 
fect of bursting shells. During one afternoon, when 
firing was unusually severe, three shells struck within 
the same number of minutes; one tearing through the 
walls of the City Hall and two others bursting within 
the barracks of the United States Marines, but doing 
little damage. A little later, on the same afternoon, a 
shell entered the quarters of the British Marines, ad- 
jacent to the United States Marines, killing one and 
wounding two. 

Let us advance up this street about one hundred yards, 
swing to the right another hundred yards, and ascend 
to the roof of a building known as the German Club 
Rooms. There we shall obtain panoramic views looking 
in three directions. 

On the map we find the six red lines which mark the 
limits of our vision in these three views starting from 
the eastern side of the English Concession, one block 
from the river, and branching toward the west and north- 
west. Note now the second and fifth lines from the 
bottom, each having the number 52 at its end. We are 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 207 

to look first over the territory between those two lines. 
Before we take this position, however, we should get 
in mind the positions of the Chinese troops, the Allied 
forces and the general plan of operations. For several 
weeks the Boxer and Imperial troops, located mainly 
within the walled Native City, have been shelling most 
of the territory included within the Foreign Concessions. 
Again and again the Chinese had made sharp attacks 
upon the Allied troops, especially in their efforts to gain 
control of the railroad station. All their efforts met with 
repulse, but many lives were lost on both sides. Guns 
from the ships of the Allies had been placed at different 
points commanding the enemy in the Native City. Most 
of them were along the earth wall on the south side of 
the British Concession. For several days hundreds of 
shells had been hurled into the walled city and the smoke 
from burning buildings showed the effectiveness of their 
work. One particular point upon which the guns had 
been trained was the South Gate, in the center of the 
south wall of the Native City, as we find by the map. 
And now, on the day we are to look over this field, the 
Allies had arranged for a concerted attack. The Rus- 
sians and Austrians were to approach the Native City 
from the east, but the others were to advance from the 
south. Four days before, Monday, July 9, a force of 
Japanese, Russian and British soldiers had captured the 
West Arsenal, see on the map about a mile south of the 
Native City, near the earth wall. The way was thus 
open for a much nearer approach from the south. On 



2o8 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

the morning of the 13th the AlHes had advanced to posi- 
tions from one-quarter to one-half a mile from the south- 
ern wall. The American Marines were on the extreme 
left near the southwest corner of the walled city; next, 
on the right, were the Welsh Fusiliers; then come the 
Japanese deployed on either side of the road to the South 
Gate, then the British Marines, and farthest to the right, 
near the river, the Eighth United States Infantry. 

Let us climb now to our lookout point on the German 
Club building, to look over the territory lying between 
the two red lines having the number 52 at their ends. 

52. Battle£eld of Tien-tsin (during the Battle, July 13, 
igoo) from. German Club {w.) to West Arsenal, 
Tien-tsin. 

Just a moment now to get our bearings. The build- 
ings near us belong to the British Concession. Farther 
away is the territory covered by the French and Japa- 
nese Concessions. That group of buildings with several 
smokestacks in the distance to the left belong to the 
West Arsenal (see map). In the distance, far to the 
right, we hardly catch a glimpse of the southwestern 
corner of the walled city. 

Perhaps we may at first see nothing extraordinary in 
this scene, and still, probably not in the history of the 
world has a landscape been photographed in which, at the 
time the view was made, events so momentous were being 
enacted ; besides, beyond doubt no other view was taken 
showing a similar panorama during the action of the 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 209 

Allies before Tien-tsin on that historic day. I was, so 
far as I can learn, the only photographer on the ground 
to do work of this kind. Correspondents from all parts 
of the world tried to secure these views and offered to pay 
me any sum I would mention for them; but, of course, 
they were not mine to sell — ^they were the property 
of the publishers by whom I was employed. Even maps 
of the field were not in existence. These things I men- 
tion that we may appreciate the privilege we now have 
of looking upon the field of battle itself, and that, too, 
at the time when the battle waged in all its fury, when 
these very buildings on which we stand were vibrating 
with the deafening roar of more than a hundred can- 
non, when the thinned numbers of civilians left in the 
desolate settlement, were waiting in the utmost anx- 
iety to know how the tide of battle would turn, whether 
in victory or defeat, which meant safety or massacre. 
The cruel enemy was infinitely superior in numbers, and, 
if their valor should prove even half equal to their num- 
bers, relentless slaughter awaited all of us. A number 
of us stood where we now stand. You see the horizon 
yonder, hazy with the smoke of rifle fire and bursting 
shell. It was a thrilling and anxious day for us ; it was 
a historic day for the world, and it is for these reasons 
that I ask you to note with more than usual care my 
explanation of what is before us here and of what we 
shall see from our next view-points. 

First, then, let me locate our position with reference 
to our last standpoint. You see those trees in an open 



2IO CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

square; the street in which we stood when looking at the 
public water hydrant, runs along the left side of the square 
between those trees and the small, low building, the gable 
end of which we see over this lattice-covered court 
near us. The small building is the one through which 
a shell passed into the rooms I occupied. I mentioned 
also a shell which entered the barracks of the English 
Marines, killing one and wounding two. I want you to 
see the hole in the tile roof made by that fatal shell ; you 
may see it to the extreme right, at the edge of the roof 
of that second building, the one with three small, square 
towers. 

The building nearest us was formerly the English 
Club Rooms, now used as a hospital and already con- 
taining wounded men. Notice the rent made by a shell 
in the roof. To-morrow, when the wounded are brought 
in from the bloody battle now in progress, this and many 
other extemporized hospitals will be more than full. 

Yesterday the cannonading was heavy, especially on 
account of several lyddite twelve-pound naval guns 
brought from British ships — ^^indeed, they had been 
brought direct from Ladysmith, in the Transvaal, and 
bore each a tablet with the significant device, " From 
Ladysmith to Tien-tsin." During the past night the 
measured tread of soldiers never ceased. We suspected 
some unusual movement was on foot; but in time of 
war civilians and common soldiers never know the im- 
port of military movements. At two o'clock in the morn- 
ing the far-fetched twelve-pounders from the antipodes 



China through the stereoscope. 211 

were in action. The night movement of troops was the 
gathering of the AUies for a general attack on the Native 
City of Tien-tsin. Americans, EngHsh, Japanese, Welsh, 
French and a few Austrians, numbering in all, over eight 
thousand, had moved out, under cover of darkness, to 
gain an advantageous position for an early general at- 
tack. That West Arsenal, the cluster of buildings and 
tall chimneys in the distance to the left, has, up to a few 
days ago, been in active operation, turning out all sorts 
of modern munitions of war. Soon after the invest- 
ment of the European settlement, this arsenal was bom- 
barded and the Chinese driven out ; shortly they reoccu- 
pied it, and only a few days before the battle now in 
progress it was shelled again and burned. It is in the 
center of the line of advance of the Allies. It is called 
the West Arsenal in contradistinction to the East Ar- 
senal, lying at an equal distance on the opposite side of 
the Pei-ho, or directly behind us, as we stand here. The ^ 
East Arsenal, which we shall see later, was captured 
and burned by the first relief force to Tien-tsin. Both 
these arsenals contained all the latest modern facilities 
for the manufacture of war material. The distance from 
w^here we stand to the West Arsenal is about two miles ; 
from the arsenal to the Native City it is a little more than 
half that distance. As we have said, the objective point 
of the Allies is the South Gate of the Native City, which 
lies directly north of the arsenal and in line with it. A 
poor road extends from the arsenal across a muddy and 
grassy plain to the South Gate, sometimes called the 



215 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Taku Gate. The brick wall surrounding the river city 
is twenty-five feet high and from ten to fifteen feet thick, 
with four principal gates. A mile or over from this wall 
is the circumvallation of clay, the earth or " mud-wall,'' 
some fifteen feet high, which serves as a first line of de- 
fense. At the left of the arsenal you can see a dark 
line extending toward our left ; that is the famous " mud- 
wall " mentioned so frequently in connection with the 
exigencies of the Boxer war. The center of our present 
field of vision is the center of the advance of the Allies 
in the forenoon; later in the day the lines advanced 
slowly and with great difficulty toward the city. You 
can scarcely see a dark line extending from the arsenal 
toward the right, marking the line of the road to the 
city. But to the left and to the right of that road, we re- 
member the Allied forces deployed in the following order 
from left to right : American Marines, Welsh Fusiliers, 
Japanese, British Marines, Eighth United States In- 
fantry. At this distance of two miles the field of battle 
seems small, but remember that it embraces five or six 
square miles before us in this direction, and, when we 
turn in an opposite direction and look across the Pei-ho, 
we will see another field of an equal area covered by 
the Russian wing of the Allies. It is uncertain whether 
we can now distinguish troops or not; but at times dur- 
ing the battle we could distinguish the different soldiers 
without our field-glasses, and with them, very distinctly. 
You can dimly see off to the right the line of the city 
wall vanishing in the distant horizon ; and the exact posi- 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 213 

tion of the American Ninth Infantry is indicated by those 
black objects, far to the right, in the hazy distance. In- 
deed, I have scarcely been able to convince myself that 
those dark objects are not the blue shirts of the brave 
boys of the Ninth; that is the exact position they occu- 
pied at midday, when they found shelter for a time be- 
hind some mud-houses. It was there they encountered 
a deadly flank fire from a range of loop-holed walls not 
two hundred yards distant. It was near that point, also, 
that Colonel Liscom fell. I must remind you that native 
villages surround the city, outside the walls, and that 
these places were filled with Boxers well protected and 
firing from loop-holes. 

If we turn more to the left we shall obtain a better 
view of the mud-wall and the course of the night march 
of the Allies. On the map, the lowest of the six red 
lines which branch out from our standpoint near the 
river in the English Concession and the third line from 
the bottom, each with the number 53 at its end, mark 
the limits of our next field of vision. 

S3. From German Club (w. s. w.) over BattleAeld dur- 
ing the Battle, July 13, igoOy showing Mud-wall 
and West Arsenal, Tien-tsin, 

Although we are on the same roof as before, we have 
so changed our position as to be able to see a number 
of citizens and one or two missionaries with their field- 
glasses watching the progress of the battle. Notice how 
some look in one direction and some in another; some 



214 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

are watching the bursting of the lyddite shells at the 
South Gate, which we hope to enter to-morrow morn- 
ing if the Allies are successful ; some are looking at the 
burning city, toward which we shall look soon; others 
are watching the shells from the Chinese guns on the 
wall of the city, which are exploding over the Allies. 
You can see where one shell has just exploded to the 
right of the arsenal. Now we can follow the course of 
the mud-wall as it runs from the West Arsenal toward 
the settlement on our left. A little farther to our left 
than we can now see five or six guns from H. M. S. " Ter- 
rible " are mounted along this wall ; these we shall also 
see to-morrow, if all goes well, when we move in that di- 
rection to enter the city. Also, beyond our vision limit 
to the left, near the same wall, two twelve-pound lyddite 
guns are placed; just across the street, not fifty yards 
away, is the City Hall, on the tower of which is the 
signal corps with a telephone communication with these 
guns, and we can hear the orders given to the gunners. 
Seemingly half-way between us and the West Arsenal 
you see a cluster of buildings sheltered by walls; near 
that place the Japanese have a field battery; and farther 
to the right the Sikhs have another. As we stand here 
all of these guns and many others are belching lurid 
flames, while the earth seems to tremble with their un- 
ceasing roar. The Grand Canal, coming from the 
southward, reaches the mud-wall oflf to the left of the 
arsenal ; a small canal extends from the Grand Canal to 
the Pei-ho, running close behind the mud-wall. Many 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 215 

of the troops now engaged passed out during the night 
behind that wall; others passed over those low, grassy 
plains to the left until on a line with the arsenal, taking 
shelter behind the wall till the order was given for a gen- 
eral advance. The night movement was intended to 
conceal the intended attack; but spies had apprised the 
enemy and they were well prepared. 

Only one person in this group of spectators seems to 
be watching the Russian attack toward the east and 
northeast. The person in dark clothes near us, with his 
field-glass at his eyes, is looking toward the center of 
the Russian wing across the Pei-ho. 

For a few minutes we shall leave our position here 
and take another on the tower of the Taku Lighter Com- 
pany's building, from which we shall look across the 
Pei-ho to the East Arsenal. On the map our new field 
of vision is given by the red lines connected with the 
number 54, which branch from the west bank of the 
river to the right-hand map margin. 

54. From British Concession (e.) to ^ast Arsenal over 
Plain Occupied by Russians— During Battle, 
July 13, igoo, Tien-tsin. 

Now, we are facing due east. The narrow, muddy 
Pei-ho lies below us. We see something of the scat- 
tered villages across the river, where Boxers found de- 
fenses from which they fired upon the settlement before 
the arrival of the relief forces. We are here at the ex- 
treme southern end of the English Settlement and the 



2i6 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

native houses across the river are few, but to our left, 
up the river, they extend from the river-front well back 
into the plain. At present they are everywhere in ruins ; 
fire has obliterated every trace of a habitable home; but 
even after fire had done its work the enemy found se- 
cure points for " sniping '' from among the ruins. The 
tower on which we stand has been penetrated by several 
shells fired from two forts a mile farther up the river. 
In this direction we again see the mud-wall, marking a 
distance of nearly two miles from the Native City. Two 
more of the destructive lyddite guns were placed by 
the wall off to our left. Other batteries of artillery had 
been planted on the wall in attempting to silence the 
two forts farther up the river, which had been a con- 
stant menace to the settlement. Eastward, two miles 
from us, we see the East Arsenal, which was captured 
and burned by the relief expedition in June. This East 
Arsenal was the initial point of the Russians, as the West 
Arsenal was of the other Allies. Russian cavalry, in- 
fantry and artillery spread out and advanced over that 
plain toward the East Gate of the Native City and the 
forts on the river. The ground, as you see, is perfectly 
level; there is no cover for advancing troops, and the 
Russians have not yet learned the art of taking shelter 
by prostrating themselves on the ground; they were 
raked by rifle fire from the villages and by shell from 
the forts on the river. From dawn through the long, 
hot day, the Russian troops advanced slowly but tena- 
ciously, against overwhelming odds; by nightfall they 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 217 

had captured the forts which had wrought so much de- 
struction and caused so much anxiety; but they had 
not entered the Native City. 

We will return to our former lookout on the roof of the 
German Club Building to witness the battle now going on. 
From a slightly different position, we will look toward the 
Native City. 

Turn again on the map to the six lines which branch 
from one point near the river in the British Concession. 
Notice the uppermost line and the second one from it, each 
with the number 55 at its end on the map margin. As we 
are now to look over the territory between these two lines 
it is evident we shall be looking over the Native City. 

55. From German Club {n. w.) to Burning Native City, 
during Progress of the Battle, July 13, igoo, 
Tien-tsin. 

We can distinguish faintly the outline of the city wall, 
especially the towers, which at intervals rise quite above 
the level of the wall. It is evident that the shells of the 
Allies are taking effect ; we can see smoke in two quarters. 

The fire to the right is in the interior of the city ; that 
to the left is at the South Gate, the objective point of at- 
tack by the Allies on the west side of the river. Every gate 
has a massive superstructure of wood ; that of the South 
Gate is burning fiercely ; with our field-glasses we can see 
the red tongues of flame licking the sky. All the batteries 
have been directing their fire upon it. There the Allies 
must enter, if at all. The bravest men cannot scale a 



21 8 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

twenty-five- foot wall; they must enter at the gate. We 
can hear the order given. There is an occasional lull to 
allow the overheated guns to cool ; then the quick muzzle 
flashes begin again, followed by the deafening roar and 
earthquake shocks. This has continued since dawn; 
there has been no lull in the steady roll of rifle fire ; the 
fitful popping of the automatic guns sometimes joins in 
the hellish chorus. In such a long continued storm of 
deadly missiles of destruction one wonders if one soul can 
be left alive. It is now the hottest hour of the day and the 
hottest hour of the battle. The sky is cloudless ; the sun 
is merciless ; the thermometers register nearly a hundred 
in the shade; and there, before us over that torrid plain, 
are scattered eight thousand men, under a scorching sun, 
without shelter of any kind save the shelter they find in 
prostrating themselves in filthy pools and quagmires, and 
yet enduring throughout this long, hot day the well-di- 
rected and well-protected fire of some fifty thousand Box- 
ers and Imperial troops. The territory to our extreme 
left here was to our extreme right before (Stereograph No. 
52). The English and the Ninth U. S. Infantry are fight- 
ing near each other to the right of the South Gate. The 
plucky little Japanese are beyond; they are easily dis- 
tinguished in white uniform. Some one in our eager 
group of spectators calls out : " See the Japs advance on 
the double-quick ! '' All glasses are up to see the bold 
little heroes rush forward for a hundred yards under a 
withering fire and then drop out of sight in the long grass 
and mud ; next some one directs attention to a charge of 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 219 

Russian cavalry on the plain across the river — a long ad- 
vancing cloud of dust which meant that the cavalry was 
within it. We turn again toward the west and see rider- 
less horses galloping back to the arsenal; many of the 
Allies are now lost to sight among the outlying houses in 
the villages near the wall, and in the long reeds which 
cover the ground in places. Night is coming on, and the 
ponderous gates are still closed and intact, being within a 
square court and not exposed to shells. The Allies are 
within two hundred yards of the city walls, but not even 
the lyddite shells have breached the walls or gates. To 
charge these walls would mean destruction and slaughter ; 
to retreat meant the same. It is defeat, but only those at 
the front know it ; worse still, it is defeat without possi- 
bility of retreat. Surrender means indiscriminate slaugh- 
ter with such an enemy. Night is coming on and dark- 
ness will enable the Allies to withdraw; and what a wel- 
come night it is to those weary men who have borne the 
brunt of battle and the broiling sun from early morn till 
darkness — ^no food, no water, no shelter, and every hour of 
the long day under a raking fire. We on the roof wonder 
how men can live under such a fire ; we talk of the dead 
and wounded now scattered over those fields where they 
will remain for the night, sweltering in bloody garments, 
on beds of mire. Darkness is to be the salvation of the 
Allies, for they retired under cover of night to the mud- 
wall, where mud-stained and blood-stained, weary and 
hungry, they caught snatches of sleep on their arms. 
It was learned during the night that the Chinese were 



2 20 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

as much disheartened as the Allies and anticipating, nat- 
urally, a renewal of assault in the morning, with reen- 
forcements, commenced to retreat. The Allies decided 
upon a vigorous and concerted attack in the morning, 
which was made and led by the intrepid Japanese. An 
unexpectedly feeble defense was met, many of the enemy 
having probably withdrawn during the night. The South 
Gate was breached by the Japanese. T.wo unsuccessful 
attempts were made to blow down the ponderous gates 
with dynamite, but each time the fuse failed to ignite. It 
was a crucial moment, when a minute lost might be the 
sacrifice of a hundred lives. In an army of heroes there 
is no scarcity of martyrs. A Japanese soldier rushed for- 
ward, with torch in hand, ignited the explosive and was 
himself blown to atoms; but the great gate was blown 
down. Led by these soldiers, the whole force streamed 
through, and the great horde of Boxers and Imperial sol- 
diers were making an ignominious exit from all parts of 
the city. When early morning brought the welcome tid- 
ings that the Allies were entering the Native City, we all 
felt that the midnight of apprehension was past ; that our 
long-beleaguered conditions were at an end ; that the last 
shell had shrieked over the settlement. 

Now let us hasten to the South Gate to witness " after 
the battle '' scenes. We will go by the mud-wall and the 
West Arsenal, stopping a few times on the way. We halt 
first to examine a pair of naval guns, already men- 
tioned as having been brought from H. M. S. " Ter- 
rible," and to look again toward the burning city. On the 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 221 

lower portion of the map find the number 56 in red by the 
earth-wall along the British Concession, and the two red 
lines which branch toward the northwest. 

56. Destructive Guns from H. M. S. ^^ Terrible'' 
and Distant Burning City Fired by their Shells 
— Tien-tsin. 

These hot, smoking guns are not the first of the after- 
the-battle scenes; before reaching this point we have 
passed lines of wounded men, borne on stretchers; just 
behind us, in a canal in line with the wall on which we 
stand, are flat-boats filled with wounded Japanese. These 
boats are pushed slowly along with poles, and the spec- 
tacle they present is pitiful in the extreme ; the bottoms of 
the boats are crowded with wounded men, some sitting, 
some lying, all in the hot sun; they are just brought from 
the muddy field where they have lain and moaned away a 
dreary night. The silence is funereal ; they are not dead 
men ; they are the wounded, many of them mortally ; yet 
no word is spoken, even by the men poling the boats slow- 
ly along. The litter-bearers are as silent as pall-bearers ; 
the tender consideration for the suffering wounded is as 
solemn as the reverence for the dead. Remembering the 
dreadful all-day battle, one can scarcely resist an impulse 
to lift one's hat when passing the familiar uniform of our 
own boys, spattered with mud and blood-stained beyond 
recognition, with a crumpled hat sheltering a pallid face 
from the fierce sun. It is better that I cannot show you 
all the scenes of war. 



222 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Now let US examine these instruments of destruction 
that have added red pigment to the war-picture behind 
those distant city walls. The gunners have retired to a 
slight shelter in the wall near where we stand; they are 
smeared with smoke and dust; they have slept by these 
guns. Yesterday, from daylight till darkness, these two 
grim machines were hot with unremittent firing. Now, 
the enemy's guns are silent, and these two, with many oth- 
ers, look restfully and victoriously toward the destruction 
they have wrought. We see the smoke still rising from 
the South Gate directly before us and, to the right, from 
the burning city; columns of smoke have been thus rising 
from different parts of the city for several days ; a great 
part of the city is laid waste, as we shall see when we enter 
it at that South Gate a little later. We are nearly a mile 
from our former lookout on the roof and not yet in line 
with the ground over which the Allies advanced. We are 
looking northwest toward the south wall of the city, and 
here we get an idea of the pools of water which had to be 
crossed, though on the line of the advance there are no 
sheltering banks or ditches, nor buildings like those we see 
before us. 

But we cannot linger here; we must hurry along the 
top of the wall to a point opposite the West Arsenal, in the 
rear of this mud-wall, where the exhausted and tempo- 
rarily repulsed Allies lay on their arms during the past 
night. Many wounded have been brought to that place. 
Many dead also. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 223 

57. Columbians Noble Soldier Boys— As Kind-hearted 
as Brave— American Giving Water to Wounded 
Japanese after the Battle of Tien-tsin. 

But we will not turn to see a row of two hundred dead 
lying a little behind where we are standing ; we will only 
glance at a scene among the wounded and hurry on to the 
burning city. You here obtain a near view of the mud- 
wall so often mentioned. And nearest to us you see a 
fatally-wounded Japanese soldier and the tender-hearted 
American boy bestowing the only blessing in his power — 
some water to allay the feverish thirst of his mortal agony. 
The American soldiers have a kindly feeling toward the 
Japanese. The average American admires pluck ; the lit- 
tle Japanese is an ideal embodiment of suaviter in modo, 
for titer in re; our boys recognize this and make pets of 
the manly little fellows. I have frequently seen an Ameri- 
can and a Japanese walking arm in arm when neither could 
understand a word spoken by the other. The little chaps 
from '' The Land of the Rising Sun " reciprocate. It has 
frequently been a great convenience to me, in passing a 
Japanese guard, that I had only to call out " American,'' 
when the cordial recognition, " All right," in quaint Eng- 
lish, was quickly given. They are so gentle and yet so 
brave, possessing in a marked degree those companion vir- 
tues. A boat-load of Japanese has just left this place for 
the hospitals in the settlement. You see the portions of 
tents from which they have been removed, but you can 
scarcely see the blood stains. Photography is merciful 
and does not portray the blood-smeared garments and the 



^^4 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

blood clots on the ground where the wounded have lain 
over night. T.here is a dying soldier on the left and a 
wounded English or American soldier beyond him, under 
the cover. Two Japanese doctors are seen here dressing 
wounds. 

From here you catch a glimpse of the canal I have pre- 
viously mentioned, and along which many of the wounded 
were carried. You can also discern buildings of the set- 
tlement, two miles away, on the Pei-ho. We are looking 
east, as the red lines connected with the number 57 on the 
map show. 

A few rods back from where we stand, we will ascend 
the mud-wall and look toward the Native City and the 
South Gate (see map). 

58. From Mud- wall near West Arsenal (b.) to South 
Gate of Native City, when Allies are J^ntering, 
July 14, igoo, Tien-tsin. 

The allied armies have passed this morning from where 
we stand across that plain to the wall of the city through 
which they have just gone, led by the Japanese. Several 
flags are already hoisted, which we can indistinctly dis- 
cern. To the extreme left, as I recall, the French flag; 
nearer the smoke, the American, over the South Gate ; be- 
tween the two columns of smoke, the Japanese, the Eng- 
lish being hoisted in another part of the city. You can 
distinguish the outlines of the walls of the city here, much 
as we could from the roof of the German Club building, 
showing still a distance of over a mile. The road which 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 225 

extends from this point to the South Gate lies directly be- 
fore us ; it swings around that pond to the left, then again 
to the right, passing around those farther native houses, 
where we see a number of persons ; then again it deflects 
to the left, and continues directly to the South Gate at the 
left of the rising smoke, where the American flag flies tri- 
umphant over the smoldering ruins. The ruins of the 
West Arsenal which we have had occasion to mention so 
frequently, lie at our right, extending nearly up to those 
trees and facing that small native village on the left. 
These ponds occur frequently over the battlefield ; some- 
times as drainage canals, sometimes as mere stagnant 
pools. The houses in these villages have all been de- 
stroyed by fire, probably by the shells fired at the arsenal 
which is in line with them. You may see a canal beyond 
those houses on the other side of the pool. That canal ex- 
tends nearly to the city, and the road follows its right 
bank. At a point half way to the city the Boxers had 
breastworks thrown across the road, and behind these 
were vast quantities of fired rifle shells. In that nearby 
village were great numbers of the dead. 

We see before us a band of coolies bearing a palanquin 
containing some important personage, probably a civil 
functionary who has been allowed to pass the guards and 
escape to the country; or it may be a distinguished 
prisoner in charge of that officer who follows. The 
coolies are carrying small, white flags for protection. At 
such a time we do not stop to make inquiries about trifles. 

We hurry on to reach the South Gate, and in passing 



226 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

through suburban villages we see many victims of the 
previous day's fig^hting ; some within their houses, some 
in the yards of their homes ; one little boy, I could not but 
notice, who lay over the threshold of his home, his feet 
projecting into the street. When we reach the gate we 
find all is chaos and consternation; the flames within the 
walls of the quadrangular square at the gate are still 
burning fiercely. The terrified inhabitants are cowering 
in every nook. We ascend to the top of the wall, just 
east of the gate, and look west. The Japanese seem to be 
in charge, but the Stars and Stripes have been sent up, 
even amid flame and smoke, and there they still float. 
Our position is given on the map by the red lines con- 
nected with the number 59, which start a few rods east of 
the South Gate and branch west. 

Sg. Chinese who Paid War^s Penalty— At South Gate 
Immediately after Allies Entered the City- 
Battle of Tien-tsin. 

The South Gate is beneath that burned tower on which 
our flag floats. We entered there from our left, turned 
in this direction and ascended the wall at that inclined 
causeway at the right of the Japanese soldiers on the wall. 
We are now looking westward, along the top of the wall. 
The West Arsenal and the foreign settlements lie beyond 
this wall to our left. 

For days we have been looking to this spot before us ; 
now we stand upon it when the victorious Allies are 
spreading out into every part of the city to our right. We 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 227 

mentioned the Boxers in ignominious flight. You notice 
two before us not in the condition of flight. Since we 
entered China, these are the first I have been able to show 
you of the I-Ho-Chuan Society. These poor fellows do 
not look much like overthrowing the reigning dynasty or 
even expelling the foreigners. We know they are Boxers 
because they do not wear the uniform of the Imperial 
soldiers. The number of dead along this wall was not 
great. You see the protection afiforded by this loopholed 
defense rising on our left. The Boxers stood behind this 
and only occasional shots, passing through loopholes, 
could reach them. The greater number of dead are in 
the streets and houses near this gate, many of whom have 
been killed by common shells and the deadly gases of the 
lyddite shells. The wall, at the point where the soldiers 
are standing, extends to the left for about fifty feet, form- 
ing a quadrangle within which the great gates are lo- 
cated ; hence, the impossibility of reaching them with shell. 
While we are considering the wall, let me ask you to no- 
tice how it is constructed, as, at this place, the ruinous 
condition shows the formation, viz., a face wall, eight or 
ten feet in thickness on both sides, and the interspace filled 
with clay. The bricks used are large, about four by eight 
by twelve inches. You see a gathering of Japanese sol- 
diers near the burned tower, and a few Americans at the 
left. In the street below are Japanese horses laden with 
munitions of war. Seated by the wall we see two Japan- 
ese civilian onlookers; may be they are attaches of the 
army, or correspondents; beyond them, standing against 



228 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

the wall, is a large native gun, called a gingal or two- 
man gun. Many of these were brought into requisition 
by the Boxers, while the regular soldiers were supplied 
with the Austrian army guns, considered by many the 
most effective weapon on the field. 

Vve will pass along to that projecting point on the wall, 
at the right of the Japanese soldier, and face in this direc- 
tion, that we may see a continuation of the wall back of 
us and the aspect of the street running parallel with it 
down on our right. On the map see red lines, connected 
with the number 60, which branch to the east from near 
the South Gate. 

60. Motley Crowds and Jumbled Huts of Old Tien-tsin 
— View Inside South Gate soon after the City- 
was Occupied. 

Here we have a general view looking east along the old 
wall which swings to the left in the distance. The Ger- 
man Club building, from which we obtained our first pan- 
oramas of the battlefield, lies over a mile farther to the 
right than we can see. We have again, from this posi- 
tion, a view of the Japanese military supply force, and 
there, near us, is an officer's horse ; we see bands of coolies, 
probably commandeered for service ; we see a line of cap- 
tured " rikishas " ; we may observe also this range of 
poorer houses made of mud; the better buildings are of 
brick, but all of one low story as usual. You may notice 
many of these mud-houses pinked with bullet holes, made 
by shots passing over the wall and, more than likely, by 
some volleys fired after the entrance at the gate, which now 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 229 

lies behind us. Farther on, a little to the left, we may see 
where a shell has penetrated a mud-roof; but still more 
interesting are buildings beyond, fronting on this same 
street where you see an open space, flanked by a brick 
wall ; they are to the left of the wall and are a little higher 
than the surrounding structures. They constitute a native 
arsenal and were well filled with all sorts of war materials, 
including cannon, rifles of many kinds, swords, ammuni- 
tion, flags, soldiers' clothing, etc. There is no doubt but 
that the ample supply of this military storehouse furnished 
many a souvenir to both civilian and soldier. After the 
capture of the city it was divided into districts, and the 
different districts were assigned to troops of different na- 
tions for control and government. This portion of the 
city was assigned to the Americans. This district extends 
from the South Gate nearly to the tower we see in the dis- 
tance, and to the left an equal distance. Fortunately for 
the Americans the district contained both an arsenal and 
a mint; more correctly the so-called mint was a public 
building for the safe-keeping of syce or silver bullion re- 
ceived from all parts of the Empire, in payment for salt, 
which is produced in great quantities from sea-water, by 
solar evaporation, and shipped to the different Provinces. 
In giving an account of this mint or salt-yamen, as we 
will call it, I must anticipate, in order that you may un- 
derstand the interest attached to the scene before us ; that 
is, I must tell you something of what transpired several 
days after the capture of the city, that you may better un- 



230 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

derstand the scene presented here on the day following 
the battle. 

The location of the salt-yamen is indicated by those 
two tall poles resembling flag-poles off to our left; the 
buildings, at the time we are looking on the scene, are 
still smoldering, and few seemed to know that said build- 
ings contained great quantities of bullion. Soon after I 
was here I met an American soldier who had in his pos- 
session an old bag containing about as much silver as he 
could conveniently carry. He said, *' Look in this bag ! " 
I looked, and, sure enough, there was a back-load of 
bright bars ; but I had some doubts about it being silver. 
I suspected I had become possessed of one of those old 
tantalizing dreams about finding money. I said to him, 
" How much apiece for those bars ? " " Two dollars and 
a half ; there's plenty more over there," was his reply. It 
proved, however, to be silver of the first quality, worth 
thirty-five dollars per bar. I had not qualified as a broker 
and the opportunity was lost. During the following night, 
and before the military officers in command were fully 
aware of the great quantity of silver in the burning ruins, 
soldiers and others had carried off vast amounts. From 
this source syce became so plentiful in the settlement that 
the military authorities prohibited the banks from buying 
it, and made some attempts to confiscate what had been 
thus taken by individuals. The ruins of the salt-yamen 
proved a veritable silver mine. A guard was placed over 
it finally, and the silver was removed to the headquarters 
of the U, S. Marines; but what disposition was finally 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 23 1 

made of this rich capture I have never been able to learn. 
And, as to the amount, I cannot say authoritatively, but 
it v^as currently reported at one and a half millions of 
dollars. This, however, I know, that when it was brought 
into the marine headquarters I made a photograph of nine 
four-mule wagon loads of silver, all standing at one time 
before the marine barracks, and was told that these nine 
four-mule teams would have to make a second trip to the 
yamen for the balance. It was well known later that the 
Americans were not the only ones among the allied troops 
who found and carried away treasure. It was a great 
surprise to me, on returning to the United States, to learn 
that so little mention had been made of these captures of 
such enormous quantities of bullion; indeed, up to the 
present, I have never met any one who had even heard 
of it.* 

If we turn about and follow the wall westward, only a 
few paces, past the tower on which we saw the American 
flag floating, we shall be within the section of the city oc- 
cupied by the French. From that point we shall look 
somewhat east of north over the center of the conquered 
city. Our position and field of vision is given on the map 
by the red lines which start from the south wall, a short 
distance west of the South Gate, and branch northeast. 
The number 61 is given at the starting point of these lines 
and at their ends on the map margin. 



* From the New York Tribune of March 11, 1Q02, we quote the following : 
"According to a dispatch from Washington dated January 23, Secretary Hay that 
day handed to Minister Wu-Ting-Fang a draft on the United States Treasury for 
$376,600, the value of the silver bullion captured by American marines at Tien- 
tsin." — The Publishers. 



232 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

61. I^ooking North from South Gate over the Burning 
C^ity, just after its Occupation by the Allies, 
Tien-tsin. 

For several days after the city was taken, destructive 
fires broke out in different parts, and it was reported that 
the entire city was to be destroyed, and from the pre- 
cipitate flight of the terror stricken inhabitants, one could 
not but believe that such notice had been served upon 
them. At every gate, men, women and children were 
trampling and jostling in their efforts to escape to the 
country and to outlying villages. The dead remained for 
days on the streets and within the deserted homes. Here 
you can see homes going up in flame and smoke, and the 
homeless people sitting around awaiting permission from 
the French guards to leave the city. These poor people 
are probably in no way responsible for the Boxer uprising, 
yet they have lost home and all save these paltry bundles, 
and thousands and tens of thousands have shared this 
ruthless fate. From here you can only see at a distance 
the ravages of flame ; you cannot see within those homes 
and shops the ravages of human hands as I saw them 
after leaving this spot and passing through streets near 
those all-devouring elements. Doors were smashed ; shops 
were entered and plundered; men and women were flee- 
ing, carrying their precious heirlooms — their jewels, their 
furs, their silks, their embroidery, their money. These 
much-prized valuables were snatched from them, and they 
dared not protest ; they could not protest ; they could not 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 233 

even tell that they were not Boxers ; but their lives were 
dearer than their most cherished jade-stones, and they 
were even thankful to escape with life and honor. One's 
property depreciates wonderfully when his life is imper- 
iled. I saw native women surrender their dearest belong- 
ings almost in a spirit of gratitude that life was not de- 
manded. Looting from an enemy bent on taking your 
life as well as your property is justifiable by a natural quid 
pro quo equivalency, or by the law of reprisal, as well as 
bv the Old Testament code ; but indiscriminate plunder of 
friend and foe is robbery, and robbery is robbery even 
in war. The looting by the Allies was not confined to the 
enemy, nor even to the Chinese, but extended to the Euro- 
pean settlement, where temporarily vacated homes of 
Europeans were entered and plundered. Shamefully 
looted China has had a lesson in the ethics of Christian 
armies she will not soon forget. Li Hung Chang said to 
a friend of mine that he had been reading up the Mosaic 
decalogue of the Christians, and suggested that the eighth 
commandment should be amended to read, '' Thou shalt 
not steal, but thou mayst loot.'' I have here mentioned 
looting because that which I witnessed and which I shall 
not soon forget occurred near where you see this fire burn- 
ing. 

After an interval of three days we return to the South 
Gate and stand again on the wall over the gate and look 
directly north, toward the heart of the city. See red 
lines connected with the number 62 on the map. 



234 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

62. Old Tien-tsin, showing Terrible Destruction caused 
by Bombardment and JFire—Tien-tsin. 

There is a sadness about a deserted home; there is a 
greater sadness about a deserted city or village. Before 
us lies a great city, not only deserted, but sacked, looted, 
and in ashes, by Christian armies. Only a few days be- 
fore this stereograph was made this street and the sur- 
rounding houses were a holocaust of human life. A day 
later that long thoroughfare was a slow-moving line of 
homeless, weeping human beings — their homes in ashes, 
without food, friendless, and, in many cases, their kindred 
left charred in the ruins of their homes. This is not of 
the imagination; all that I mention I saw. There were 
mothers with babes; there w^ere aged men and women 
supported by younger members of the family ; there were 
wounded borne on wheelbarrows, when it was their for- 
tune to have friends; otherwise, they were left to die. I 
saw one poor fellow, whose leg had been shattered by a 
bullet, painfully hitching himself along by inches, drag- 
ging the broken limb, while the bone protruded from the 
wound. At the same time, this street was strewn with 
corpses ; those of persons asphyxiated by the fatal gases 
of the lyddite shells could easily be distinguished by the 
yellow discoloration of the skin. Lily- feet, which were 
so CKpensive at Shanghai, were here the appendages of 
mangled corpses that had no more consideration than the 
carcasses of dogs, which also lined the streets; but the 
camera cannot portray nor the pen describe those heart- 
rending scenes along this narrow street after the battle. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 235 

Now it is a pathetic scene of desolation. The homeless, 
vStarving multitudes have fled. You see two coolies with 
wheelbarrows ; these have been allowed to pass the guards 
to gather up scraps of worthless iron, or something of no 
value from the ruins. You see also a woman who has 
been allowed to pass within the gates; we can only con- 
jecture her mission; it is, doubtless, an urgent one, may 
be, to search for valuable property or missing friends. 
Nothing less would tempt her to return at this time. Be- 
sides being a sad picture of a pillaged and deserted city, 
you can see the character of its architecture; its situation 
on a level plain; its low one-story brick buildings and 
narrow streets, this being one of the principal thorough- 
fares. You see the gate and tower beyond. Such gates 
and towers usually denote the intersection of important 
streets. 

This street is the boundary between the American and 
French sections of the city. The transverse street, at the 
tower, is the northern limit of these districts. 

We saw on the city wall two dead Boxers; you may 
wish to witness a closer view of live specimens, and I 
think I promised you such a privilege on our way to the 
north. We will therefore leave the Native City and return 
to the European settlement, where we shall be able to see 
about fifty. 

63. Some of China^s Trouhle-makers— Boxer Prisoners 
Captured and Brought in by the 6th TJ. S. Cav- 
alry , Tien-tsin, 

Some time after the capture of the city of Tien-tsin it 

was learned that a large force of Boxers were advancing 



236 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

from the southwest, and had reached a place only ten miles 
away. Some apprehension was felt about a concerted 
attempt to recapture the Native City and attack the settle- 
ment. The guns which had been used against the Native 
City were mounted on the mud-wall and trained in the 
direction of the threatened advance. Breastworks were 
thrown up along the crest of the wall and every prepara- 
tion made to resist any force which might be brought 
against them. Even if the whole army which had fled 
from the city should return with reenforcements, the Al- 
lies intrenched behind the mud-wall were confident they 
could repel it and seemed quite anxious that an attack 
might be made. No Boxers appeared, however, and so, 
instead, an expedition was made in the direction of the 
rumored advance. The force sent out included the U. S. 
Sixth Cavalry and a company of Indian Lancers. They 
met a considerable number of the enemy, which they at- 
tacked and routed. The boys of the Sixth Cavalry re- 
turned in great elation of spirits. It was to them a bap- 
tism of Chinese fire and they seemed to enjoy it. They 
brought in many trophies, such as spears, knives and 
flags and about fifty prisoners. These are the prisoners 
before us. We see some of the boys of the Sixth Cavalry 
beyond them; those lads assisted me in securing this 
stereograph. There seemed to be some uncertainty as 
to whether all of these captives were Boxers. Boxers 
often doff their distinctive uniform for the ordinary 
coolie's or peasant's garb when about to be captured ; so 
that it is not always easy to know a metamorphosed 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 237 

Boxer from a common coolie. The boys said they knew 
one was a genuine Boxer because he carried a weapon ; 
at the same time one of the cavalrymen grabbed the 
" real thing " by the pigtail and tugged him into the 
foreground and placed him near the camera as you see, 
saying at the same time: '' You can tell by his bloomin' 
squint that he's a bloody warrior." The English and 
American soldiers were quite fraternal in China, hence 
the adoption of Engli-sh slang. This is truly a dusky 
and unattractive brood. One would scarcely expect to 
find natives of Borneo or the Fiji Islands more barbarous 
in appearance ; and it is well known that a great propor- 
tion of the Boxer organization is of this sort ; indeed, we 
may even say by far the larger half of the population of 
the empire is of this low, poor, coolie class. How dark- 
skinned, how ill-clad, how lacking in intelligence, how 
dull, morose, miserable and vicious they appear! This 
view was made during a very hot day in a torrid sun; 
and still they sit here with their heads shaven and uncov- 
ered without a sign of discomfort. None of the group 
endeavors to escape the camera; they are surrounded by 
guards; they are helpless and humble. They are quite 
devoid of the insolent boldness that characterizes the 
mountain tribes in the Province of Hunan; they are 
prisoners and do not yet know their fate. To-morrow 
they may be shot ; but whether it is bambooing, shoot- 
ing or beheading, one fellow decides he will take a 
smoke. 

We are but a short distance from the Pei-ho (see 



238 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

number 63 in red in the German Concession on the map). 
Leaving the Boxers with the guards, let us stroll to the 
river, where we may witness a novelty in transportation. 
Find the red lines and the number 64 in red a few blocks 
further north on the map. 

64, Wheelbarrow Transportation, China's Best and 
Cheapest Freighters— At the Boat-landing, Tien- 
tsin. 

The wheelbarrow is both the cart and the carriage of 
northern China ; it is one of the few things that has at- 
tained a higher development in China than in any other 
part of the world. It has reached the dignity of a com- 
mercial institution. You can see in those before us the 
unusual construction, the great size of the wheel which 
is placed in the center of a heavy frame which projects in 
all directions; observe also how far apart the handle- 
bars are placed in order to giver power to balance. A 
rope or strap extends from the handle-bars over the 
man's shoulders; this gives power of equilibrium and 
distribution of weight. The upper part of the wheel is 
protected by a frame. A system of ropes is used to bind 
on bulky cargoes. Some are adapted to carrying pas- 
sengers, and some chiefly for heavy loads of cargo of any 
kind. I have seen five passengers in one barrow. Pas- 
sengers are often carried between Shanghai and Pekin, a 
distance of six hundred miles. One man will sometimes 
carry on his barrow a half ton of cargo. A strong wheel- 
barrow coolie will carry two passengers and make twenty 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 239 

miles a day on a daily lallowance of twenty cents ; that 
would be ten cents for each passenger, or one-half cent 
per mile about one-fourth the lowest rates on any of our 
railways. Why should a Chinaman favor the introduc- 
tion of railways ? 

At Shanghai we referred to the wheelbarrow as a pas- 
senger vehicle, while here you may see it used in transport- 
ing all kinds of commodities. They have been brought 
into requisition in great numbers by the different nations 
to transport army stores from the boat-landing at the river 
front to the different places of encampment or to storage 
places for supplies. This small army of wheelbarrows is 
in control of the Japanese, as you may see by the flag 
borne by one of them ; a very small flag is also attached 
to the front of each barrow — a flag with a white field and 
a black disk in the center. You may have some idea of 
the general use into which they are brought when you 
remember that all the armies are supplied in the same 
way. These wheelbarrow men are often careless about 
keeping the bearings of the wheels lubricated, and when 
such is the case the creaking noise under a heavy burden 
is excruciating. Try to imagine this entire force tearing 
on with heavy loads and dry axles, and you may realize 
the susceptibilities of the human tympanum in relation 
to harmony and discord. But the most interesting thing 
about these quaint motors is, that in case you have a 
quantity of merchandise to be moved from one point to 
another you can have it done by these coolies with their 
barrows for much less than it would cost you by modern 



240 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

carts, trucks, wagons or railways, and done with greater 
care and less destruction to the goods transported. 

Notice the building on our left with the American flag 
flying over it; it is the headquarters of the Quarter-= 
master's Department, and I call your attention to it be- 
cause when I am ready to start for Pekin I must come to 
this office and present a letter to General Chaffee from 
the State Department at Washington in order to get 
from him a permit for transportation on one of the com- 
mandeered small cargo junks which sail from the landing 
before that office. You can see some of these boats now 
at the landing beyond that great mound of army supplies 
over which the flag is flying. That is the point from 
which we are to sail when we leave Tien-tsin. We are 
here looking up the Pei-ho. You will notice two of our 
own soldier boys whose free and easy manner and com- 
fortable negligee has occasionally elicited unfavorable 
criticism from foreigners, this rough and ready undress 
being regarded as slovenly and unmilitary, especially in 
parade, but we believe in sacrificing appearance for the 
best fighting conditions. These two are typical American 
soldiers off duty. They scrambled to balance them- 
selves on this perch; they swore at the coolie to "hold 
still " ; they wanted to go into pictorial history, and here 
they are — statuesque as you please, with the drollest of 
wheelbarrows for a pedestal. Before coming here we 
saw the Boxer prisoners; here we see, beside the wheel- 
barrows, the common coolie ; they appear in no way dif- 
ferent from the Boxers, showing how largely the I-Ho- 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 241 

Chuan is made up of the lower element of the population. 
From where we are standing we stroll directly up the 
river for a mile, cross to the opposite shore and enter a 
mile further on a native village in which many of the 
native Boxers were sheltered during the first attacks on 
the settlement. On the map see number 65 in red near 
the second eastward bend of the river. 

63. Family of the Lower Class ** Chowing ^* in Their 
Home, Paitially Destroyed during the Siege, 
Tien-tsin. 

Here, as usual, we find the house partially destroyed ; 
but as the buildings are chiefly of clay and unburned 
brick, many of them furnished little fuel for the flames 
and so escaped destruction. The inhabitants are now re- 
turning to reoccupy their old haunts when found habit- 
able, and we find this family of the lower class '' chow- 
ing " after their wonted fashion. Whether afraid of the 
camera or not, they are now under the Allies and neces- 
sity has no choice; they meekly do our bidding. The 
*' old woman '' has a place at the end of the table. They 
are eating a regular meal; it is nondescript in the na- 
ture of its victuals. I cannot describe dishes that are al- 
together mystery; there is rice, of course, and some- 
thing which I imagine has once been fish ; there are 
vegetables in small pieces in liquid. There are no knives 
nor forks on the table, nor chairs around it, but of course 
we see the inevitable chop-sticks or " nimble lads," as 
their Chinese name implies. The name is appropriate, 



242 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

for the dexterity with which the Chinese handle these lit- 
tle straight sticks is marvelous ; they will pick up a single 
grain of rice between the ends of these sticks as readily 
as we could do it with a spoon. 

Do not forget that we are here looking at a family 
of the lower class. Among the upper class a family at a 
meal would present a different appearance; there 
would be fine dress, fine furniture and fine food after its 
order. Judged by some writers, the Chinese have been 
placed next to the French as cooks, and particularly as 
culinary economists. Every Westerner is impressed by 
the simplicity of their food. Probably this denotes wis- 
dom more than it does scarcity, for in Western lands also 
we often find the healthiest and most robust among the 
plain livers. In these days when the enlightened nations, 
so-called, are studying the best means of feeding the 
greatest number at the smallest cost, it is interesting to 
learn an undoubted fact that it is possible in China in 
ordinary times to furnish an abundance of food of whole- 
some quality at a cost of two cents a day for each adult 
person. Nor is this the minimum, for it is claimed by 
eminent authorities that during famines great numbers 
have been maintained on one and one-half cents a day. 
Before us is a family of six, and I doubt whether the daily 
expense of that family exceeds ten cents. 

Before we leave them, have you noticed that they sit 
in the hottest midsummer sun, and, like all others among 
the lowly Whom we have been studying, they are without 
head cover ? Have you noticed the mottled scalp of the 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 243 

boy who sits with his back toward us ? That appearance 
is very common among the poor ; but whether from scalp 
disease or the encampments of insect colonies, I can only 
surmise. Some girls peered from small apertures in 
these lowly homes, and I tried to persuade them to join 
this " chowing " band ; they tittered and withdrew, and I 
did not persist, as they would not have added much to the 
beauty of the six already before us. It is scarcely neces- 
sary to suggest that there is probably no boastful rivalry 
between their wardrobe and their cupboard ; but while we 
look upon their poverty and lowly home, we must not for- 
get Gray's beautiful lines : 

'*Let not ambition mark their useful toil, 
Their homely joys and destiny obscure." 

In the course of our journeyings I have alluded before 
to the great amount of arable land occupied by graves. 
Assuming the population of China to be four hundred 
millions, and remembering that an equal number re- 
quires burial every forty or fifty years, or that the amount 
of productive land must be reduced every fifty years by 
the area of four hundred million graves, we can possibly 
understand how graves are interfering with agriculture 
and the food supply. Let us walk to the outskirts of the 
Native City just beyond the battle-field, where we can see 
how thickly the mounds of the dead are scattered over 
the plain. On the map the red lines branching toward 
the northeast from the number 66, a half-mile to the 
west of the Native City, shows our position. 



244 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

66. Reverent but Prejudicial Ancestor Worship— One 
of Cbina^s Immense Cemeteries, which seri- 
ously licssen Her Productive I^and Area. 

This is not exactly a potter's field ; it is the burial place 
of the common people. We do not see here the graves of 
the better class, for they often have private graveyards 
within their own domain. These are humble graves, sim- 
ple mounds covering heavy wooden coffins. They are 
sacredly preserved; they have been located by geomancy 
and that has first right, and land tenure second. Sup- 
pose we allow a square rod for two graves and that only 
four hundred million burials occur every fifty years ; that 
would diminish the production area one and one-half mil- 
lion acres every half century. Can we wonder then that 
there is so much complaint because inviolable sepulture 
encroaches so heavily upon productive lands. Wherever 
possible, barren slopes and unproductive places are set 
apart for cemeteries, but this is frequently not practicable. 
Mortuary buildings are erected in which the wealthy place 
their dead, at least, temporarily. Near Tien-tsin I saw 
buildings inclosed by brick walls in which many coffins 
stood above ground quite exposed. These coffins had 
been burst open and rifled by some of the foreign soldiers. 
The bodies were tumbled out to be stripped of their jewels 
and trinkets; they were robed in their best apparel and 
well preserved, as though partially mummified. It is 
known that they are buried with some of their precious 
belongings, and this tempted the greed of some of the un- 
principled soldiery. The coffins are made of plank three 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 245 

and four inches thick, carefully sealed. In the bottom is 
placed a quantity of quicklime; the body is swathed in a 
great amount of cotton, and only a slight odor escaped 
from these newly-opened coffins. The dead are kept at 
least forty-nine days before interment ; this is to give the 
geomancers ample time to locate a lucky burial site. Cof- 
fins are often secured irrespective of any imminent pros- 
pects of death; indeed, they are always regarded as a very 
handsome and appropriate birthday gift. Funeral cus- 
toms in China are so numerous and strange that chapters 
might be devoted to an account of them ; one consists in 
scattering paper money (small tin- foil imitations of syce) 
along the road as the funeral procession advances, in 
order to appease the cupidity of straggling ghosts that 
may haunt the way. We see no tablets nor monuments to 
mark these last resting-places of the dead. The ap- 
proaches to the tombs of nobles, as we observed at Nan- 
kin, are often marked by rows of stone figures. 

You see in the distance what appears to be a small 
pagoda, and beyond a small tower; they both might be 
called towers of silence ; but they are really baby-towers ; 
that is, they are towers in which babes are buried, or 
rather pitched. All babes under one year of age at death 
are wrapped in cloths, bound around with strings, and 
thrown into these towers. It may even be suspected that 
these baby-towers may be the bourne of many girl-babes 
before death ; you know girl infanticide is not uncommon, 
and here is facile modus. In illustration of how prevalent 
is the destruction of girl-babes, one writer tells about see- 



246 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ing the following notice posted at the edge of a pond: 
'' Girls may not be drowned here." 

There is a shepherd here among the graves with his lit- 
tle flock ; very little mutton is eaten in China, so it is quite 
probable that these mutton-subjects are kept for their 
wool. 

Only fifty yards to the left of where we stand I wit- 
nessed a spectacle I will not soon forget, a scene too 
shocking to be shown to the world indiscriminately. It 
was the shooting of two Chinamen by the French and 
the beheading of two others by the Japanese ; the former 
were convicted of stealing, the latter of being Boxers. 
The former were bound to posts and shot ; the latter were 
made to stand among these graves while a shallow pit was 
dug in their presence, beside one of these mounds; this 
shallow muddy hole was to be the one grave for the two 
convicts. T.hey were made to kneel on the mound looking 
down into the grave prepared for them, so that when the 
fatal blow was struck they would fall therein. Only a 
few of us had learned the hour of execution and were 
present, among us an American doctor who, when this 
grave was being dug and the two poor fellows stood near 
by, held the hand of one, feeling his pulse. Some one 
queries : " Normal, doctor ? " " One hundred and twenty- 
six," replied the physician; and yet the doomed man 
showed no outward mental disturbance. Another, speak- 
ing his language, asked him if he was a Boxer, to which 
he replied meekly and with mysterious resignation, " I am 
no Boxer ; all the village people hereabouts know me." I 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 247 

was told afterward that this sympathetic medical man, 
who was not unfamiliar with blood, was so disturbed by 
this heartless butchery that he was disqualified for duty 
for several days. I will not describe this spectacle in de- 
tail for the same reason that I do not present a view of it. 
It is too grewsome for presentation in a popular series; 
yet those who would fully realize the cruelties and bar- 
barities of war should know and see ; the view may be had 
of the publishers. 

The most famous man in China, the ablest statesman in 
Asia, the second richest man in the world and one of the 
most widely known characters in history, reached Tien- 
tsin later during my sojourn in China. I refer to Li 
Hung Chang. His journey from Canton to the north was 
heralded over the world. The great intermediary be- 
tween the throne of China and the foreigner, so often de- 
graded and then reinstated, passed from south to north 
like a sidereal luminary that had wandered from its path, 
but was again to be restored to its true place in the heav- 
ens, or as peacemaker to the Imperial Court. 

6t» I/i Hung Chang, China's Greatest Viceroy and 
Diplomat— Photographed in His Yamen, Tien- 
tsin, September 27, igoo. 

This meek and bland-looking old man who sits before 
you was at this time the talk of the world — would he be 
allowed to land at Tien-tsin? Would he be reinstated? 
Would he be authorized to negotiate terms of peace ? He 
seemed to be the only man who understood this great in- 



248 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ternational difficulty. He was allowed to land. He occu- 
pied the Viceroy's Yamen across the river outside the 
walled city (see map northeast of walled city). It was 
important to obtain a stereoscopic record of this distin- 
guished personage. Through the courtesy of an Ameri- 
can doctor who desired a photograph of the ex- Viceroy 
and who had some acquaintance with Dr. Parks, his medi- 
cal adviser, I visited the Yamen. His Excellency being 
engaged with important matters of state, kindly consented 
to sit for us on the following day at a fixed hour. At the 
hour appointed we were met by the genial Dr. Parks, 
who, as soon as I had chosen a well-lighted part of this 
court in the Yamen, had servants bring out this finely in- 
laid stand and the chair in which he sits. When cameras 
were placed in position and everything in perfect readi- 
ness, his chair-bearers were notified and he was brought 
from his rooms in his official chair and assisted by his at- 
tendants to the chair in which you see him. He greeted 
us with a pleasant smile and spoke to us freely through 
Dr. Parks as interpreter. His natural simplicity and the 
entire absence of affected importance was quite fasci- 
nating; kingcraft is nearly extinct; the time when a 
sovereign could make his subject revere him as a demigod 
belongs to the past. A truly great man has no occasion to 
pretend greatness ; only those who are not great find it 
necessary to resort to affectation. Neither Earl Li's great 
wealth nor his great attainments have in any degree left a 
trace of self-importance in his manner. His left eye has 
a quizzical droop which seems to be the premonition of an 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 249 

ever-ready smile. He personifies the simplicity and nat- 
uralness of a truly great mind. He is vigorous in intel- 
lect, but somewhat feeble in his limbs ; he is supported to 
and from his palanquin. He is richly dressed in heavy 
brocaded satin. In the front of his cap you see an orna- 
ment ; it is a circle of pearls around a large ruby. When 
I asked Dr. Parks if he could remove the cap of his Excel- 
lency for one stereograph, the doctor explained to him and 
removed the cap. This caused Earl Li to smile as though 
he would have said : " What can they want with my bald 
pate?" Even that fine blackwood table, inlaid with 
mother-of-pearl, upon which his arm rests, is worth notic- 
ing ; this style of furniture is much used by the wealthy. 

Nearly all the world is more or less familiar with lead- 
ing events in the life of this Bismarck of the Orient ; but 
for those who may not be, I will take the following resume 
from " The Chinese Empire Past and Present." 

" The modern development of China is due more to Li 
Hung Chang than to any other single agency. He is im- 
mensely wealthy and has held nearly every post of honor 
that China could give him, though likewise at irregular 
intervals, he has been deprived of all position and power ; 
his " yellow jacket " has been taken from him, and his 
head has been in danger. He was born in 1819 of pure 
Chinese blood. In three successive literary examinations 
he stood first, and in 1847 was enrolled in the Hanlin or 
Imperial Academy, the highest literary degree in the em- 
pire. He was an official in the Imperial printing office 
when the T.aiping Rebellion broke out. In this war he be- 



250 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

came prominent and was appointed governor. He imme- 
diately saw the value of European military organization 
and equipment and formed the " ever-victorious Force," a 
Chinese Corps, armed, drilled and disciplined according to 
European fashion, first under the direction of the Ameri- 
can, Ward, and then of the celebrated Gordon. Hence- 
forth Li threw all his force and influence into the adoption 
in China of Western arts and sciences. 

" In 1870 he was made viceroy of Chili, the province in 
which Pekin is located. 

" In 1872 he had thirty Chinese boys sent to the United 
States to be educated, and established a college in Pekin, 
under Dr. W. H. P. Martin. 

" In 1880 he took advantage of the Russian war scare to 
improve the army and navy and establish the telegraph,, 
which now comprises a network of over ten thousand 
miles. Simultaneously he worked for railroads. A short 
line had been built from Shanghai to Wusung, but this 
was bought and dismantled the next year by the govern- 
ment. Li maintained, however, the agitation for railways 
imtil in 1888, when an active beginning was made, and the 
work has gone steadily on ever since. In 1877 he bought 
four ironclads just built in England for the royal navy, 
and so laid the foundation for the present Chinese mod- 
ern navy. He has likewise so cleverly managed diplo- 
matic relations with France upon their nominal victory in 
the war in 1884-85 over Formosa, that China got decided- 
ly the best of it in the net result. 

" Under his encouragement joint stock companies have 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 25 1 

been organized for various industrial enterprises, such as 
silk, cotton, wool, glass and iron manufactures. 

" Li Hung Chang belongs to the native party, and is 
ready to resist the encroachments of foreign nations with 
all the arts of diplomacy at his command." 

With a single spark of patriotism in his breast, how can 
he feel otherwise ? He favors progress and development ; 
but how can he look with favor and equanimity upon for- 
eign encroachment and the exploitation of his native land 
bv nations whose customs and institutions he does not like. 
China has been the victim of exploitation and commer- 
cialism for centuries, and that because she is rich in re- 
sources, old-fashioned and unwarlike. 

If she had developed the arts of war as long and as well 
as she has the arts of peace, the foreign nations, even the 
allied foreign nations, would not have dared to coerce 
treaty ports and naval stations in her borders, or to thrust 
a new religion and a new civilization upon her. There is 
much of the bully and the child about all these affairs in 
China. 

When might makes right, justice is usually out of the 
balance, and there is apt to be greed and cowardice in its 
place. 

I have no special love for the Chinese, but it does not 
seem to me that they get fair play. The average Euro- 
pean and the average American knows no more about the 
Chinese people than he does about the possible inhabitants 
of the stellar worlds. 

The Boxer uprising was stupid and barbarous. The 



252 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

retaliation by the so-called Christian armies was often 
characterized by rape, plunder, cruelty, and enormous in- 
demnities dictated by allied might. The Golden Rule has 
been quite lost sight of in the ravages of trade, greed and 
tyranny. What would we think if England should de- 
mand a cession of territory on Casco Bay that she might 
have a winter port for the Canadian Pacific Railway? 
And then, if Russia should demand a naval station on 
Massachusetts Bay to equalize strategic points? And 
again, if these demands should be followed by one from 
Germany for a grant of territory in Plymouth harbor, be- 
cause some alien countryman had been killed by irrespon- 
sible ruffians at Worcester? I hope this parallel is not al- 
together unfair. It ought, at least, to be suggestive. 

When we had finished our stereographs from this posi- 
tion we asked Dr. Parks that His Excellency might be 
carried through the open court into bright sunlight in or- 
der that we might obtain a view of him in his official 
chair. This was done, and as we pressed the bulb and 
lifted our hats, the venerable statesman smiled acknowl- 
edgments and was borne to his spacious rooms within 
the Yamen. 

A most exasperating delay in the delivery of my pho- 
tographic plates kept me in Tien-tsin for weeks after the 
battle. Boxes of plates which arrived at Shanghai June 
24 did not reach me until the middle of September. In 
the meantime many additional forces had arrived, among 
them many additional troops from Germany, from India, 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 253 

from Japan and Russia. The Legations in Pekin had 
been practically in a state of siege since June. In the 
early part of August the greatly increased force of the 
Allies started for Pekin. On the way they fought the 
battles of Peitsang and Yangtsun, and burned the city of 
Tung-Chow and all the villages left standing by the Box- 
ers in their line of march. 

This march of the allied troops between Tien-tsin and 
Pekin occupied ten days, and they entered the latter place 
on August 15, just a month and a day after the capture 
of the former city. Now that about twenty thousand 
troops were quartered in the Imperial capital, the trans- 
portation of vast quantities of army stores to that place 
was necessary. To accomplish this the different armies 
requisitioned great numbers of native junks, and these 
plied constantly between Tien-tsin and Tung-Chow, the 
nearest port to Pekin. Before boarding one of these junks 
at Tien-tsin for Tung-Chow I shall tell you briefly how I 
maintained my existence during and after the investment 
of the former place. 

It would seem that under even a quasi-military rule, 
civilians have few if any rights ; the civilian furnishes the 
sinews of war; he pays the taxes which maintain the 
army and the navy ; but he has scarcely a right to his own 
property or his own soul when petty military officers 
are invested with a little brief authority. Many citi- 
zens, both American and English, complained bitterly 
of the high-handed, unlawful and impudent way in which 
officers took possession of private houses which had been 



254 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

temporarily vacated, using and misusing everything found 
therein, including libraries, pianos, bedding, etc., not- 
withstanding the fact that these same civilian owners are 
paying taxes to furnish the army with all necessary camp 
equipments. Three times I had received permission from 
agents of the owners to occupy private houses which had 
for a time been vacated, when American officers came, and 
in a way which I fear is somewhat characteristic of my 
countrymen said : '^ Get out of this ; we want these 
rooms ! '' An English, a Japanese or a Russian officer 
would have said : " Sorry to disturb you, but we will re- 
quire these rooms." Bluster is not bravery. Suaviter in 
modo fortiter in re. 

After three removals, by the courtesy of Mr. Denby, 
son of ex-Minister Denby, I was allowed to occupy a 
room in a series of Chinese buildings under his charge. 
Here I remained undisturbed until I went to Pekin. This 
room was my abode for three months ; it was my bedroom, 
my kitchen, my parlor, my developing room. It contained 
some Chinese furniture — a raised platform, or Chinese 
bedstead, a table and some stools. I secured a spirit lamp 
with which I cooked the few things which required cook- 
ing. It was some time after the capture of the city of 
Tien-tsin before supplies came in from Shanghai. Dur- 
ing that time there was great scarcity, and it was often 
difficult to obtain a sufficiency of food to allay the gnaw- 
ings of hunger. To make matters worse, mails had failed 
to bring to the North registered letters and other valuable 
matter. My letter of credit was two months overdue. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 255 

Xhings were a little uncomfortable when so little food 
could be bought, but when my last penny was gone a 
famine seemed near at hand. I don't mind missing a few 
meals, but a fast of a few days makes unpleasant cavities 
about one's anatomy. Fasting has an uncomfortable sen- 
sation, but it is more bearable than asking favors of the 
military, which I might have done. I did, however, make 
a pretense of dropping in casually upon the cook of the 
U. S. Marines to ask him if he could spare a little rice. He 
pointed to a small starch-box on the floor half filled with 
rice and clay and straw, saying at the same time, " That's 
good rice if you only wash it enough." I carried it off 
quite thankfully, and, sure enough, when washed in five 
or six waters, it assumed a normal white, and I feasted 
several days upon this, seasoned with a pinch of salt. One 
day during this period of scarcity, while on the street, I 
saw a potato drop from a passing commissary wagon. 
This I seized, and following the wagon for a half-mile 
picked up in all seven potatoes and one onion. With these 
I returned to my room in a mood of triumphant forage ; 
I pared, sliced and boiled them together in a small tin 
pot on my spirit lamp. I seasoned with salt and a small 
portion of rancid oleomargarine left in a tin which had 
been opened two months before. That meal I shall never 
cease to regard as the acme of gastronomic pleasure. Peo- 
ple try many things for an appetizer, but seldom try fast- 
ing. This veritable feast had predisposed me to potatoes, 
and on another occasion, having seen a quantity of fresh 
potato parings thrown out in a yard near a street, I de- 



2S6 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

cided to return after night- fall to secure them. When 
night came on, taking a quantity of matches in my pocket 
to enable me to find the exact spot, I walked back one 
mile to obtain this tempting prize of potato parings ; but 
on reaching the place a number of officers were seated 
near by and my pride defeated my plan to secure another 
feast, for I could not take them in the presence of the 
officers. I returned bootless and retired to my hard bed 
with hunger unappeased. This state of scarcity continued 
until one day an American soldier came to me, all his 
pockets sagging with syce (bars of silver), and asked me 
to buy. I told him I had no money. Seeing my watch 
and chain, he said, " What kind of a watch have you ? " 
1 replied, " A good Elgin watch." Without a moment's 
hesitation he offered his bars of silver for my watch. The 
'* swap " was .promptly consummated, and I had one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars worth of silver bullion, that is, about 
twenty pounds. This relieved the money market and in 
some measure the fast, for soon the natives began to re- 
turn to the city and to the settlement. After a while they 
commenced to bring in produce, which ended the famine. 
About this time more American troops arrived, one com- 
pany encamping in the compound about my room. I 
formed many pleasant acquaintances among these men 
and officers ; sometimes giving accommodation to them in 
my room, and in turn they would accompany me in my 
outings with the camera, rendering valuable assistance. 
Through these generous-hearted boys I obtained many 



CHINA THJROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 257 

war-souvenirs and enjoyed many acts of courtesy; but we 
cannot go further into details. 

We now pass, October 3, to the river before the Quar- 
termaster's office, already shown you, and embark on one 
of the junks requisitioned by the American army to trans- 
port supplies to Pekin. 

Turning to Map No. 2, the map of Eastern China, we 
trace the part of our route just before us by the red line 
which runs from Tien-tsin to Pekin. A short distance 
from Tien-tsin we find the number 68 in a circle, both in 
red, with a zig-zag line running to our route line. At this 
place we stop to inspect a line of junk boats on the Pei-ho 
River. 

68. Junk Flotilla on the Pei-ho River— Transporting 
U. S. Army Stores from Tien-tsin to Pekin. 

General Chaffee's permit is only for transportation. 
Each traveller must supply his own provisions, cooking 
utensils and bedding. These quaint craft need little de- 
scription, as they are before you. They draw only two or 
three feet of water; their shallow holds are filled with 
army supplies. The only sleeping-place is under those 
tarpaulins thrown over the poles, and the season is so far 
advanced that the north winds are exceedingly uncom- 
fortable. Each boat has a crew of five or six native boat- 
men, one of whom acts as captain, each junk being in 
charge of a soldier who cooks his own meals on board. 
Every boat has a small cabin, in which the crew cook and 
sleep. With a favorable wind, a sail is used; at other 



258 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 



1 



times each boat is towed by the crew with a line attacherl 
to the top of the mast. Other Hnes radiate from the main 
line to accommodate the several men on the tow-path. 
The progress upstream with the tow-line is scarcely a 
mile an hour, and the average time of a passage to Tung- 
Chow is five or six days. You see this fleet of junks be- 
fore us is being propelled by the tow-line while its sails 
remain unfurled; you see also something of the tortuous 
course of the river. At certain turns of the river the wind 
is favorable and the sail is spread. Have you noticed how 
those slender bamboo poles are used for expanding the 
sail ? Sometimes neither the tow-line nor the sail can be 
used; then poles are employed; these are thrust into the 
muddy bottom at the bow, the end is placed against the 
shoulder and then the coolies walk rapidly to the stern of 
the boat, thumping heavily the deck with their feet at 
every step. This habit of pounding with their feet at 
every step as they push from bow to stern is one of the 
strangest customs among these boatmen. They seem to 
think that it adds to their effort in pushing. The effect 
during the still hours of night is very curious — they " keep 
step,'' and there are often several fleets passing in oppo- 
site directions at the same time, and the rhythmic pound- 
ing of so many bare feet on the hollow sounding decks in 
the dead of night 1 cannot forget. 

The native commerce on this small stream, in boats like 
these, in times of peace, is enormous. The river is nar- 
row and shallow and is frequently silting up and changing 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 259 

its bed. The boats touch the banks at many points and 
one can debark and embark ahnost at any time without 
stopping the progress of the fleet. I found walking on 
the tow-path in the cool autumn weather much pleasanter 
than the deck of a junk Hke this, and I walked the greater 
part of the distance between Tien-tsin and Pekin. Stand- 
ing here, we get a true aspect of the Pei-ho and the kind of 
boats that ply the river ; we see also the level character of 
the river plain and the small growth of shrubbery and 
trees in the distance. We get some idea of the alluvial 
soil, though we do not see the prevailing crops. We hap- 
pen to be at a place on the river where the cultivated fields 
do not extend up to the river bank. The soil everywhere 
is exceedingly rich, and alternating crops of corn, millet, 
beans, sweet potatoes, peanuts, sorghum and melons have 
marked the fertile valley all the way between these two 
great cities. But the crops have not been harvested; the 
villages and homes are deserted. I said the crops had not 
been harvested — I meant by the owners ; many of them for 
almost a mile on either side of the river have been plun- 
dered by the men of the junk-fleets belonging to the dif- 
ferent armies. The native junkmen were permitted to 
go ashore and gather in corn and millet to fill all the empty 
space available ; the Europeans took whatever they could 
use. The inhabitants had fled well back from the river, 
leaving crops and sometimes live stock. Many a pig that 
had been left behind and ventured to the river bank be- 
came a victim to the deadly army rifle. Occasionally some 



26o CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. JB 

of the people who had fled from their homes returned 
under cover of night to gather in something of their wast- 
ing harvest. It was a sad sight to see such vast fields of 
valuable crops being lost, and cold winter near at hand 
and starvation awaiting many. On one occasion I at- 
tempted, while walking, to cut off a great bend in the river 
by what I imagined would be a short way across country. 
After penetrating about three miles I reached villages con- 
taining skulking refugees, at least stragglers, partially in 
hiding. At first sight of me they scampered pell-mell into 
the forests of millet; this grain is often from twelve to 
fifteen feet high and affords a safe and interminable re- 
treat. At one farm where a poor old woman carrying a 
bundle of grain on her back attempted to cross the road 
some fifty yards ahead of me, and little suspecting the 
presence of a '' foreign devil " so far back from the river, 
furtively cast her eyes both ways on the road. She spied 
me, dropped her bundle as though she had been fired upon, 
jumped into the dry millet field and in a moment was out 
of sight. It gave me a sensation of sadness I never be- 
fore experienced, and even now, long afterward, it steals 
over me when 1 recall the incident — an innocent, harmless 
fellow mortal fleeing from me in frenzied terror. She 
thought I sought her life; and to be suspected of seeking 
to take life shocked me, I dare say, as much as my 
presence frightened her. It is almost a pity that this terri- 
fied woman could not have known that the alarm was 
mutual. By this time I had decided that the road I had 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 26 1 

been following did not lead to the river, and was on my 
v/ay back by the same road on which I had come. I was 
sure I was among Boxers. I had no weapon whatever 
about me. I secured two cornstalks and arranged them 
to have the appearance of a gun and carried this make- 
believe affair as I would have carried a gun so that Box- 
ers back in the fields would think I was not defenseless. 
In this mood of nervous apprehension I was working my 
way back when the poor terrified woman dived into the 
field of millet. We were much in the same condition ex- 
cept that my fright up to that point had not settled in my 
heels quite to the samp extent as hers. I, however, made 
good time back to the river. 

Three times a day I made my cocoa by means of my 
spirit lamp, and as often did I have my bread and oleo- 
margarine and a fragrant hunk of automatic cheese out 
of a box that once held two five-gallon cans of kerosene 
oil. After walking, sailing, towing and poling for five 
days we reached Tung-Chow, the end of the journey by 
junk. All the nations had a transporation service of 
junks here, and they lined the bank of the river for a 
great distance. It is thirteen miles from Tung-Chow to 
Pekin, and that distance had to be made in a four-mule 
wagon over the worst kind of a road, axle-deep in mud. 
The only accommodation at Tung-Chow was an army tent 
kept for soldiers passing either way. In this I spent the 
night with a single soldier, who shared with me such 
remnants of things eatable as we could find in my kero- 



262 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

sene box. On the. following morning, after lashing some 
eight or ten pieces of baggage on the top of a well-filled 
government wagon, I mounted the high seat with a mule 
driver well versed in all up-to-date vocabularies of pro- 
fanity for the final stage of my journey from Tung-Chow, 
the nearest port on the Pei-ho River, to Pekin. 



I 



STEREOSCOPIC PHOTOGRAPHS. 

Whoever has seen the modern stereoscopic photograph 
through a stereoscope realizes how tame and unsatisfactory 
are the best plain photographs and engravings. Children have 
been robbed of a rich inheritance from the idea that the stere- 
oscope was for amusement, and from the fact that the world 
has been imposed upon by having ordinary photographic pro- 
ductions mounted for its use. These worthless pictures, even 
in the stereoscope, no more compare with the stereoscopic pho- 
tograph than a wax flower does with the fragrant bloom which 
Heaven has called forth from the living, thrilling plant. Even 
the best plain pictures to be bought are crude in comparison 
with the beautiful landscape, reproduced paintings, or other 
stereoscopic photographs brought to life in thi's instrument. The 
time has come to make full use of these pictures and this in- 
strument in the schools. It is now feasible to teach geography, 
science and art by their use. It costs a mere trifle, and the re- 
sults are incalculable. 

The stereopticon does not approach the stereoscope for value 
in the schoolroom. A wide-awake teacher will have no diffi- 
culty in getting all the money necessary to equip an entire build- 
ing with all the instruments and views needed. The danger is 
of being imposed upon. The best cost a mere trifle ; the others 
are worthless, dear at any price. 



Underwood & Underwood, Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth 
Street, New York, deserve the gratitude of all friends of edu- 
cation for manufacturing a stereoscope that is inexpensive, light 
and durable, and at the same time of the requisite magnifying 
power to make it of the highest pedagogical and artistic value. 
They also have prepared along the lines of high art an almost 
exhaustless supply of stereoscopic photographs. — Journal of 
Education, Boston, Mass. 



SfP 22 HO? 



OMNIPRESENT EYES. 

But when all is said we come at reality in books only through 
interpreting symbols by the power of our imagination and 
through the illumination afforded by our personal experiences. 
Books cannot furnish us with new perceptions of realities. They 
can remind us, recall to us, suggest to us what we have seen 
or experienced, and with their aid the imagination may con- 
struct, using the materials it has, more or less correct notions 
of what we have never beheld. We are brought a great step 
nearer the actual by pictures. It is a mistake tO' suppose that 
mere amusement or entertainment explains our love of pictures. 
They go far to satisfy our desire for actuality, with the infor- 
mation the mind craves. Hence the importance of abundant il- 
lustrations in school work can hardly be exaggerated. Children 
learn more from the pictures in their geographies than from 
the text. So the modern school-book in almost all subjects 
abounds in illustrations and is thereby not so much embellished 
merely, as enriched in power to convey instruction. 

But in late years has been perfected something that, in my 
judgment, goes ahead of pictures, and quenches the mind's 
thirst for the concrete almost as completely as the very object 
before the bodily sight. I refer to the 'stereograph. The art of 
illustration, as we all know, has been marvelously improved in 
recent years. Our commonest school-books to-day have proc- 
ess illustrations that for accuracy, delicacy and beauty are great- 
ly superior to the best of sixty years since. Our ten-cent maga- 
zines are familiar miracles oi picture-books. Certainly, the 
human mind has been vastly enriched by this cheapening and 
perfecting of processes of illustration. But even the best pic- 
tures we still feel to be but pictures ; they do not create the il- 
lusions of reality, solidity, depth. " The best in this kind are 
but shadows." But with the stereoscope the wonder of pho- 
tography is brought to its culmination. Man is a two-eyed ani- 
mal, and the stereoscope, with its two lenses that blend two 
pictures into one, is like a pair of omnipresent eyes, at the com- 
mand of everyone. — George J. Smith, Ph.D., Board of School 
Examiners, New York. 



UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, 

New York. ^ f^ t^ London. 



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